W111 3.5 engine not firing up at all

[Tony H]

I think my car has correct wires-my coil wire shows 2.26K ohms. Did you pull the distributor when you installed the Pertronix? Did it ever run with the Pertronix?

[sjefke]

Tony,

On a 20K Ohm scale, I read 16.27 on my digital multi meter yesterday. On a 2K ohm scale, my meter indicated "1" - meaning no continuity. Sounds to me like my wire has 8 times more resistance than yours. What type of wires do you have?

Car never ran with Petronix, but did not run anymore before I installed it either.

I did pull distributor, but was VERY careful not to twist it to loose timing. I verified yesterday that distributor is indeed in correct position. I heared the petronix firing (sounds like "tack" in the distributor) when I turned the distributor around yesterday during the static ignition timing with ignition on.

Any more thoughts on coil wire resitance? Or recommendations for replacement? Should I stay with solid core (silicone) or go with copper strand?

Thanks,

Bert

[Tony H]

I thought my wires were correct but maybe not-they are not solid core. If you think it might be the coil wire you could by some solid core wire from the parts store and just make up a test cable. It sounds like the resistance is really high on your wire.

[el sea]

I would strongly question the gas. Double check to make sure you are pumping and trying to run on gas and not water.

Oct 29, 2007 Altanta Speedway ring a bell?

Good Luck,

[sjefke]

Well, after a year of silence, I decided yesterday to take another crack at the old MB that was sitting silent and dusty in the garage. I had put on new wires, rotor, cap, plus Petronix 1 and Flamethrower coil, and now I also had a good strobe light. Fuel gauge read empty, so I dumped 5 gallons of fresh gasoline in the car and tried starting it. And you guessed it, after some sputtering it came to life. The word dumbfounded decribed it best.

I suspect I had a mix of gas and water in the tank that caused the problem.

Moral of the story: make sure you have plenty of real gas in the tank before troubleshooting.

Bert (who is very happy)

[Graham]

Bert - As discussed off-line - I have posted a pic of the Pert connections with switchgear and blue coil still in place. But other than a jumpy tach, no need to not use Flamethrower and bypass switchgear. Then add resistor when you can.

Lower left red is Pert red and upper left black is pert black on my 350SL 4.5L.

If you put the Flamethrower in, I think you have the sketch from an earlier thread. With that, the green/yellow tach wire should connect to coil negative with an inline 7-11 kohm resistor if tach jumps. I still have to do this step, so just going by what Pertronix told me.