Which Wire Do I Connect to when Timing with Pertronix

[Paulporsche]

When my car had points, I would connect the red lead of the timing light to the brown lead on the side of the distributor, the black lead to a ground, and the clamp to the number 1 wire with the arrow facing the spark plug. This is the standard setup for a CD ignition.

Now that I have a Pertronix Ignitor 2, I have 2 wires, black and red, coming off the side of the distributor.

So my question is: Which wire do I connect to with my red lead? I'm thinking it should be the black one but I want to be sure before I take a chance on causing harm to the CD box or anything else.

[Walter_Middie]

Paul,

Your timing light is connected to +12v (red wire) and ground (black wire). The only signal the timing light is looking for is from the clamp on spark plug wire #1.

The red wire from the CDI (B) connects to the Pertronix Ignitor Red wire. This is +12V from the ignition switch. You could use this if it is convenient - otherwise, any source of +12V will work for the red timing light wire.

[Paulporsche]

Got it! Good explanation. Thanks Walter

I realized I had forgotten that I used to hook up the light to the switched red wire in the engine bay fuse panel, which is connected to by the red Pertronix wire, so that makes perfect sense. LOL. Oldtimer's Disease!