Does anyone know what is the best electronic  mfg for a convertion for a ford dist?

Depends what you want to use the motor for.Stock,Hi-performance,full race? 

  

It is merely a matter of personal preference.

There are three readily available, pertronix, Mallory and accell which is a rebadged Mallory. These all convert your existing distributor.

If you car is still 6volt pertronix make a unit to suit the early distributor. The Mallory and accell unit will only fit the late distributors, not the 57 ball bearing base distributor.

Everyone has a tale about reliability but for me, at the price you can pick them up on eBay, the accell units take some beating.

There also a couple of complete billet electronic distributors available.

The MSD ready to run is probably the most reliable but it is pretty pricey, Speedway Motors or Summit used to carry these.

Hope this helps


Rick - West Australia
Do Y Blocks Downunder run upside down? Gravity Sucks!!

A little off topic but when I was deciding what to do with my dist. I went for the MSD aluminum billet ready to run (8383) set up and it has worked great. Some say little pricey but I it was truly a plug and play type unit and adjusting it was very easy. Even for me and I have two left hands when it come to this part of my engine.

It is definitely another option out there.



Dave

The Netherlands

I must say that I agree with you Dave, they are a beautiful distributor and of course they are brand new as against our stuff which is at least 40 odd years old. But on most budgets it is hard to justify the price difference. Depending on your luck on eBay, I picked up an Accell system for $30 + postage to Oz and the MSD start around $380 + post. Bought locally they are around $500.

The big thing with any of these systems is to make sure everything is clean, voltage is correct and earth has good contact. of course installations as per instruction is most important.

Regards

Rick - West Australia
Do Y Blocks Downunder run upside down? Gravity Sucks!!

Tim - There are several electronic modules that simply screw onto the point plate and will run your engine - and there are "fans" of virtually every type. Common choices are the Pertronix and the Accel units. Be sure and protect yourself against an unexpected failure by carrying a spare - or even a set of points for a re-fit (to get home). The biggest problem is that getting a replacement part can take time - that you don't often have - and fellows have been stuck at the side of the road with some expensive toys.

Be sure to make yourself aware of how many OHMs the coil and ballast resistor have to total in order to give reliable performance. If you go too low - the transistor in the controller will have to carry too much current  - and module life will be limited. If you go way too high - you will lose some ignition performance.

Be sure the point plate has a proper ground - right to the block. The grounding transistors of the various modules take extreme offense to intermittant grounds.

Don't get too thrilled about opening plug gaps with an electronic module. Ted has dyno proof that the standard plug gaps are just as effective - and sometimes produce more power.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I've been runing a Crane unit for 6+ years.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Crane+Cams/271/750-1700/10002/-1

You gotta have the right tools and know how to use 'em.

TC - Austin, Texas

The Ford Duraspark II system works very well and can be back fitted to most OE distributors from '57 and up.  They are dirt cheap, easily serviced and reliable.  You can transplant the guts of any '76 and up distributor and then use it to trigger the module or box of your choice.  The early iterations of Duraspark distributors used a small cap so no one will know if you desire an original look or the big cap and HEI style wires can be used if that appeals to you.  Best of all, most parts stores stock individual replacement parts. 

I have Petronix in two of my cars, 57 Bird (tach drive dist) and 65 Galaxie, using MSD6's. In my 66 F100 I have a Duraspark FE distributor with the same MSD6 box. I have had good luck with all of them, no failures. I have been from the California coast to New Orleans and back in the truck, and I put hard miles on the Galaxie. Being of the age when Duraspark was the ignition used by Ford, as a dealer tech, I changed lots of Duraspark distributor pickups and ignition modules. With right tools I can change a Duraspark pickup on the side of the road in 15 or 20 minutes. But it is a pain in the ass; if you drop the roll pin for the stator you're in big trouble. A Petronix is much easier to change under these circumstances; bad weather, tired, middle of the night, etc.

57 Black Tbird 312/auto

The other day I was looking at the Pertronix site and Im sure they do the ignitor III for 57 dissy onwards.. Seems to be a good unit as its multi spark throught the rev range and has a rev limiter and variable dwell etc, not too pricey and if you put it into a recon dissy would work out pretty cheap for what you get. Ive been running to Ignitor II with the mods Steve and Mark suggested, been going great!



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"