Marinette Boat Forum

Dave are you in salt water? I am in salt water if I don't sand the rust off of the parts things get stuck. The only thing on my pertronix distributors that does not rust is the springs. Every thing else needs regular attention to keep my distributors rust free. I spray them with a rust preventitive at storage , when I put the boat back in everything except the springs needs sandins and lubing.
Bob

I am in fresh. Salt as you know is hard on everything!

I have had boats in salt. I had some success using a light coating of wheel bearing grease.

I have also used light coat of marine corosion control grease which works best.


Dave

UPDATE: This is year 5 for the pertronix distributors. Time flies! No problems both are running fine.
This season I had the boat out for the first run of the season. It is wet year round here in KY. She went up on plane no issues. Returning to slip the STB engine lost power and killed when put in reverse while docking (Of Course the best time right?)

It progressively got worse as the day went on while trouble shooting.

I checked the Distributor Cap and could see some arching and I immediately knew what was going on. I replaced the cap and rotor and she purred like a tiger again!

OK... 4 full seasons approx. 200 plus hours and the only failure which is not related to the distributor or the Pertronix Ignitor.

I contacted Pertronix to ask which distributor cap and rotor I should purchase.
Rodger Wilkinson is the engineer supervising the Marine Dist. test. He is sending NEW CAPS and ROTORS and they want the old ones back to check out. So the test continues on its 5th year.

Not only am I impressed, I am confident in the product and I would certainly recommend the distributors to other M owners.

Safe Boating,
dave

I actually had them send me a new clamp because the aluminum cap clamp fused together. I also had to replace my coil because the terminal rusted (the metal was not marine rated)

Other than the corrosion issues, it runs good after a year. I do see some rough metal in the distributor cap contacts but will send a picture to the guys there to see if its normal or if the coil puts out too much juice.

They did send me a new setup at the end of last year. So this is the Second complete distributor for test with the latest and greatest mods. I really like the service and work they put into such a smaller market. The new system is none vented I think and the cap arching could be one of the things that will be corrected. Still a couple of weeks out on getting everything in and going but for sure would recommend Pertromix for the price.

Interesting that we are experiencing similar observations. No problem with corrosion on the coil terminals here. The STB cap looked like every contact was hit with an arc welder leaving what looked like slag. No so on the Port which only had very light corrosion and no evidence of arching.

Even with the OEM Dist. I always have had a moisture issue on the STB.

Going to replace both caps and rotors so even playing field again this season.

Safe Harbors,
dave

Dave this is what I sent to Roger. I really think the new Distributor they have will help this problem.

Yup looks like mine!

Dave

Too much gap between the rotor and cap and/ or improper timing of when the spark happens relative to the rotor/ cap interface (not engine timing).

It looks like the spark happens off to one side a bit from the photos.

Jeff

Any idea if Pertronix makes a distributor for a 440? When you look in the "Marine" section of their catalog, it only mentions the 318.