Pertronix flame thrower 3

[Houle #382]

Has anyone installed the flame thrower 3 conversion kit into a Big Block electronic distributor, if you have what's the trick to get the vacuum pod to hook up to the new plate. It seems like the hole is too far to the outside edge and I cannot get it to assemble properly.

 

[Outsider]

I bought one for my iron dual point housing. Didn't like the way any of it fit or was retained. Spent a day modifying it, my breaker plate, and vac adv set up. Not a quick bolt in for me, but it now really works well. I tested and set the rev limiter and I am happy. I would buy another, but my experience was it took mods to work right.

 

[Houle #382]

I ended up calling Pertronix, I explained my issue to a tech and gave him my number off the distributor. He looked it up and stated that the Flame thrower 3 will not fit my distributor even thou it claims it will fit a Mopar electronic distributor. The only one they have that will fit is the Flame Thrower 2.

 

[Houle #382]

I bought one for my iron dual point housing. Didn't like the way any of it fit or was retained. Spent a day modifying it, my breaker plate, and vac adv set up. Not a quick bolt in for me, but it now really works well. I tested and set the rev limiter and I am happy. I would buy another, but my experience was it took mods to work right.

I thought about modifying this one actually all I would have to do is relocate the hole that the vacuum pod shaft locates in. The current one is out to far towards the end of the plate where as the Mopar hole is closer to the inside by the shaft it's self.

 

[Outsider]

Ya I did that and more, but I wanted the III with the rev limiter. 4spd that revs pretty quick, and sometimes let my friends drive it.

 

[Geoff 2]

Not sure how it works with Pertronix junk, but depending on where you drill the new hole, you might change the total VA applied & also the rate of apply. On some dists, this could change the phasing such that the rotor tip is not centered on the cap segment, might cause crossfire.

 

[Houle #382]

Not sure how it works with Pertronix junk, but depending on where you drill the new hole, you might change the total VA applied & also the rate of apply. On some dists, this could change the phasing such that the rotor tip is not centered on the cap segment, might cause crossfire.

I plan on sending the unit back, I found a Distributor at 440 Source that I'm looking at. Don't need the CD box or ballast resister. I really liked the Flame Thrower 3 distributor as the car definitely did run much better but I can't take the chance of breaking another shaft.

 

[Fran Blacker]

You could remove the Pertronix shaft and have it tempered. That will soften in up. If you have a heat treat shop they could do it properly. If they're nice free or cheap. You could whine a little.

 

[Houle #382]

That would be a possibility but I don't have a new distributor. The hardness of that shaft makes me wonder if it is to hard compared to the Mopar shaft. Another possibility is alignment of the shaft coming out of the distributor to the oil pump gear. If the alignment is off once I clamp down the distributor it could be putting excessive pressure on the shaft causing it to break.

 

[Fran Blacker]

Didn't Pertronicx make good on the shaft, maybe I missed it? Did the tip break? I don't think the drive gear pushes a lot on dist shaft. Have marine setup, reverse rotation ehgine and it has a piece that goes in dist hole that keeps dist from pushing on dist shaft. Piece on left, note longer shaft middle.

 

[Houle #382]

Didn't Pertronicx make good on the shaft, maybe I missed it? Did the tip break? I don't think the drive gear pushes a lot on dist shaft. Have marine setup, reverse rotation ehgine and it has a piece that goes in dist hole that keeps dist from pushing on dist shaft. Piece on left, note longer shaft middle.View attachment 1480398

On the first one that broke yes, we are still talking about the second one that broke which I just sent back to them yesterday. I do not want another distributor so I was thinking their electronic distributor conversion kit but that won't work either. They claim it will work but after I gave them the number off of mine they said it wouldn't work. So where do we go from here I'm not sure