Ignitions

[John Hofstetter <hofs@domain.elided>]

>Subject: Re: Pertronix Ignitor Inside Info.
>
>John,
>   What Darrel is getting at is, certain electronic ingitions, like the
>Jacob's, provideds varing voltages to the coil to effect the ammount of
>voltage put through the plugs. What he wants to know is does the
>PerTronix do this? I don't think it does. I think it mearly allows the
>full amount of battery voltage, I.E. 12V flow through the primary
>circuit. Therefore you will get the most spark available from any given
>coil at any given time.
>
>Dan Nees

Question guys,
Would it be the Jacobs or the MSD or whatever that provides the varying 
voltages to the plugs, or is it on the other hand the conditions in place 
at the moment of firing that determines the voltage. I suspect from 
far-too-little oscilloscope looking that the plug wire, the plug 
condition, the plug gap, etc. is what determines the voltage of the spark 
and that the high power ignition system is only making whatever-is-needed 
voltage available for the situation. On the other hand, Dan, I would 
think you have to be correct in regard to the Pertronix. Certainly my 
Unilite distributor at $300 isn't smart enough to vary the voltage to the 
MSD unit, or to the coil if the MSD is out of the picture, at least not 
intentionally, and why would we want it to? A question that I think John 
L. asked?
John H.