Pertronix points conversion / distributor damage

[ckracing]

Previous owner upgraded from points to Pertronix ignition. Guessing the wrong one was installed as during summerizing the cap was shaking. Wrong fit, lots of wear, soon to fail. Looking to replace, rebuild and wondered if others have feedback. Stay with Pertronix? Go to a Mallory distributor? Others?

[cadunkle]

I've used Pertronix in several vehicles. When they work, they're nicer than points. I had one fail years ago within a week of warranty ending and when I called it in they siad they couldn't process it because their system was down. I wanted to be sure that when I called back they would have record that it failed in the warranty period, not the following week when the warranty no longer applied. I was assured tehy had made a note of my information and the failure so it would be covered once their RMA system was working again. Called back the following week and nobody heard of me or my issue the previous week and despite my best attempts they would not replace it. For that reason alone I'll never buy another Pertronix unit again, while the product may be alright their customer service is terrible and they won't stand behind their product if it does fail.

I've used Accel points conversions in several vehicles, the optical setup with the special rotor. Don't like requiring a special rotor but I've never had problems with them. For the boat I run a Mallory Unilite and haven't had any issues with it. Mallory seems to be a good company and their tech line has been helpful for me in the past.

I am curious though as why a Pertronix would cause the fitment issues you're describing. The magnetic pickup slides over the points cam and it uses the stock rotor, and the pickup just bolts on the points plate. I don't see how you could have those problems with it. If you already have the Pertronix and it works, figure out what's wrong with your distributor, fix that, and just run it. You've already got it and it should work fine.

Just looked at your other thread... Are you certain the cap and rotor are correct for the distributor? Is the cap installed correctly? Mallory YL have a pin and slot, cap only goes one way and if you put it backwards it'll be cocked and rotor can hit cap. You didn't say what type of distributor you currently have.

[ckracing]

Apparently a rotor cap fitment problem. Unsure of what type of distributor. Will be trying to salvage what's there by rebuilding before just buying all new.

[csuggs]

Chris, I had some similar issues with an older Pertronix conversion so I called skidim and bought new dist. cap, ignition and matched coil. No more problems.


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