Bob,
Lonnie said that since the primary coil dropped so much that it caused a fault in the CD box.. not sure about what got cooked but he said its done. I will reach out to him and ask what precisely happened as i am no electronics specialist. I know what its supposed to do! thats about it.. I just sent him an e mail on "how does a bad coil cook the CD box?" and if there is any indicators of it going bad, and to further, any way to prevent a bad coil from cooking the box?
will post when he gets back to me.

I got an e mail back from Lonnie at permatune about how the coil can cook a CD box.. here is what he sent me so we all know! At least i learned something new today!
The purpose of the ignition coil, also known as a transformer, is to step up Voltage to a high enough level to create a spark. The Voltage level in the Perma-Tune high performance ignition system can be as high as 40,000 Volts. To do this, the coil has two circuits, the low Voltage and the high Voltage. The ignition box is connected to the low Voltage circuit and provides power to this circuit. The high Voltage circuit is connected to the distributor and from there to the spark plugs. The oil inside the coil prevents the Voltage being created in the high Voltage circuit from shorting to the low Voltage circuit. When the oil leaked out through the crack in the porcelain, the coil shorted out and then the high Voltage power went to the ignition box instead of the spark plugs and wham, there goes the ignition box. Fail to replace the coil and ignition box together and there goes another ignition box.

About the only thing that can be done to improve the life span of the ignition coil is to move the coil to a better location away from the heat and vibration of the engine fan. If the engine has a newer style alternator that does not use an external Voltage regulator, then the coil can be relocated there, next to the ignition box. This is especially important for a Turbo. Refer to the attached PDF.


Perma-Tune ‹ Advanced Ignition Technology

hope this helps!

^ Yep, that's a design fault of the original CDI boxes, the Permatune and nearly all other units of similar design.

Our CDI+ units are protected against coil short circuit and half a dozen other common failure modes. :cool:

Given $450 for a new P-tune in the late 90's, I will bet that is exactly what I did not do.............replace the coil. Hell, it's round, looks ok and is firing spark. Thank you for helping me figure out my old problem. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...leys/freak.gif

I had to look away from the Johnny post. I just am not a $$ player anymore. His kit is boss.

go with MSD.
it has an adjustable rev limiter and a light on the box that signals a good input from dist.

they are also cheap and available anywhere.
coil is only 50, I carry a spare.
mount the coil facing up.
I had clewette make a longer coil wire with a 90 on the end. it even fits under my intercooler.

UPDATE. Put a new MDS Streetfire and blaster coil in last night. Nice tidy install thanks to Teddy2 and his awesome plug that allowed me to wire the MDS right into the 6pin in the back.. Car started right up. When i was checking injectors i pulled them all out, and 2 came out with the sleeves on them, so i have them and i am replacing all the rubber seals and the sleaves that need replacing. Car runs great but has a weird up and down idle.. i think its probably a leak in the injectors and or i need to adjust timing.. i moved it when i was trying to test stuff.. going to do that as well and report back. Stoked i have fire now!

Good news on the starting/running issue.

As for the up and down of the idle, if during warm up, that typically is due to an overly rich mixture which can be due to an out of adjustment cold control pressure or something else. If the idle hunt is when the engine is warm, it could also be an air leak as well as overly rich mixture. Follow up on your plan to adjust timing and r/r the injectors. If that doesn't fix the idle, report back with as many details as possible, and you'll get immediate help and suggestions. Good luck.

Update! new Streetfire MSD installed yesterday.. Mounted the new blaster coil in the original spot on the fan but put it right side up and it just barely fits but it does. That way i dont have to worry about oil leaking. Car fired up after 10 seconds, real slow at first but them came back to life! Ran rough, and I thought I might have a air leak somewhere, looked everywhere for it but didnt have one. Checked the timing and whamo there ya are.. she is now purring like a kitten. In so far as going from a broken bosch CD to a Permatune with their coil, to the MSD, i have owned this car since 1992 and it has never run so smooth and or started so quickly. Its something you can feel, smoother power.. hey todays my b day and I got to take her for a nice spin. Thanks guys and if anyone needs my input on this hit me up!

I would replace all three parts in the runners for each.

Dremmel the little staked deformation off so you can get them out. You need to re-stake on install. I am not sure of the best drift tool to use. Other's will have thoughts.

Good news!
Don't overreact to the up/down idle. As you suspect it will likely be some leaking air vacuum on something you disturbed when you were trouble shooting the initial problem.
Attend to your leaky injector seals & the idle might fix itself, otherwise look for any disturbed air hoses.

The next thing you must do is get a new non-resistor rotor button in your distributor.
(The Bosch button could eventually burn out with the MSD). These simple buttons are stupid cheap & plentiful - then put the original part in your spares box. Next time you get spark plugs also get the non-resistor type.

Who is this Teddy2?? :)
Good job getting it up and running.