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By Ol'ford nut - 15 Years Ago
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I am running the stock point ignition on my car and have a Mark Ten unit I have thought about installing. I've been told it keeps points from burning. I'm looking for others opinions-
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By bergmanj - 15 Years Ago
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Ol Ford Nut, I still have two of those units (the Allied Radio Knight Kit variety - virtually identical) which I have used off and on for some 40 years now and they always work great for preventing burnt points. Two things to watch-out for, though: Lube your distributor points rubbing block about every six months (I forgot about mine way back when - the rubbing block dissappeared), and some points may actually tarnish (to the status of no longer working) from having so very little current going through them that you may need to polish them once in a while. Hope this helps. Regards, JLB
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By Speedbump - 15 Years Ago
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I've used the Pertronix unit in the last two distributors for Ford engines I built, including one 52 flathead. They make them for Y's also. IMO, best $100 you will ever spend. Warren
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By GREENBIRD56 - 15 Years Ago
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OL'Ford NUT - That type of CDI unit changes the amp load on the points considerably - makes them into a low load switch, so the contacts can last for an extremely long time. Way longer than with the convention inductive firing system. I had one on an old Ford Falcon I drove to college for several years and it finally wore the rubbing block off the point set. Its was pretty much trouble free - but was not used for making more horsepower. The older CD set-ups exchanged the amps of the conventional system for higher voltage - uses the coil as a step-up transformer. It seems to me that idle and low speed performance was improved - with the six in the Falcon - but mine was never used on a V8. The "chip" electronics of the current day version of CD iginitions makes it possible for them to have "multi-spark" capability - that I don't believe was possible in the earlier equipment.
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By DANIEL TINDER - 15 Years Ago
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Speedbump (1/7/2010)
I've used the Pertronix unit in the last two distributors for Ford engines I built, including one 52 flathead. They make them for Y's also. IMO, best $100 you will ever spend.
Warren
Not especially relevant to this thread, but it suddenly occurred to me that the performance of the magnetic Pertronix-type pickup, besides being independent of distributor cam wear & point-drag (no breaker spring-tension adjustment needed), might also be unaffected by bushing wear? As long as the advance mechanism was free & properly curved/setup, might the usual rebuilding due to mileage/wear be thus unnecessary?
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By Bob's 55 - 15 Years Ago
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I have a MSD ignition box that is triggered with points and as the others have stated the points last forever. But the best thing about it is that it starts much easier and runs smoother.
I used to trigger it with a Pertronix but it mysteriously quit working (I may have left the key on too long while static timing the engine  ). I really didn't notice any difference between the points and Pertronix in this situation so I just left the points in.
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By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
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How stable is the timing when using the points as a trigger? In my experience so far, points never resulted in stable timing. For instance, the initial timing might vary by a half to 1 degree or so at idle. When using pertronix and now duraspark, it is very stable.
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By Speedbump - 15 Years Ago
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Even though I take apart and inspect/clean and limit mechanical advance with a bushing, any distributors I do, you're correct that the Pertronix (or other conversion) is very tolerant of bushing wear, but stable spark/timing and zero need of regular maintenance are the best parts. It will also trigger an ignition box if one feels the need. I'm not a salesman for them but I've been through the Unilite and other conversion kits and like it when a product simply does what it's supposed to do.
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By GREENBIRD56 - 15 Years Ago
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It always seemed to me - no direct proof as such - that the unstable timing had more to do with wear in the bushings rather than use of the points. But.......worn distributors always seemed to scatter the spark a bit more than one with "like new" clearances.
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By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
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Bushing wear could be a cause. But I witnessed this when using points, then pertronix, then back to points, different points and condenser each time, in the same distributor. In that case everything but that which is triggering the spark is eliminated.
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By GREENBIRD56 - 15 Years Ago
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????? If you change all of the top end (trigger) stuff - but the dizzy still has the same bushings and drive gear - that means the mechanicals haven't changed ............so doesn't that say the mechanicals may be the (constant) trouble?
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By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
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The mechanicals are the same. But with points, the timing was not stable. With pertronix it was stable.
With points, the points cam comes into play. Even though part of the Pertronix mounts to the cam, maybe the electronics are more forgiving.
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By GREENBIRD56 - 15 Years Ago
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I don't know exactly the way the Pertronix "counts" - but the Duraspark detector is actually a small (permanent magnet) generator - some Ford literature calls the rotor an "armature" and some call it a "reluctor". But in fact - if you hook the two wires (violet and orange) from the detector coil to an osciliscope - you get this nice sine wave (8 full cycles) as the shaft rotates once. The Duraspark controller routes this output through a diode that eliminates the "negative" part of the wave - so each passage of a reluctor blade results in a single (+) pulse - then zero. The chip reads it as a binary "on/off" and the timing computer (for the dwell) goes on from there. Trigger occurs as the dropping (+) voltage crosses the line at "zero". The ouput from the Ford "detector" (orange and violet wires) will operate a Chrysler controller - like the one you have Charlie - and it will operate a GM HEI controller and a Duraspark box too. I'm thinking that the "zero crossing" turns out to be a pretty stable point.
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