Re: [Amc-list] 76 Hornet Pertronix distributor - vac advance dead; fix, or replace the whole POS ?

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

I can tell you what I've done...

For 232/258's, I've mostly gone to late-70's Duraspark stuff. They've
been absolutely reliable. They use funny Ford connectors, but you can
get those froma junkyard, anything with a six Duraspark from the 70's
and 80's, car or truck. The wiring is easy enough.

THe distributors you get can cheap rebuilts. Be warned, a lot of them
have sat around and the lube in them is dried up... I'm finding it
worthwhile to complete disassemble -- new or used! -- distributors,
gun-brushing the long journal, wire-brushing the oil groove, lube and
reassemble. I had a rebuilt once so sticky it spun in the block about
30 degrees and stopped the motor!

But the Rambler Mentality route -- which I think I would do today
instead of a Duraspark conversion -- is use a points distrib, full
teardown and lube, and use a Pertronix kit and epoxy coil. Simply
because it's neater; no box on the firewall or fender.

Both the Duraspark and Pertronix are better-than-points, but not
high-output. For a stock motor, that's MORE than enough. I have a
Duraspark II on my Classic wagon (which consists of an expensive cap
and rotor, an adapter, all Standard parts, plus a junkyard "TFI"
coil). That's near-HEI output and easy to add to an existing setup.

But I think the hot cheap setup is a junkyard Ford TFI coil on a
Pertronix in a points distributor. You need an external resistor, but
most stock coil brackets have a littl tab for one.

If you are running over 5000 rpm, or high performance (turbo, high
compression, big cam, etc) HEI or multiple-spark might be warrented,
but it's a waste -- and invites arcover in a street car, where the
wires get dirty and exposed to extreme voltages found in an HEI setup
-- and be more trouble than it's worth.

Durasprk and Pertronix are essentially "points replacements" -- plus
they don't weat out the distributor (rubbing block). Set timing once,
and forget. They are 100% reliable -- it's not the 70's any more,
modern electronics are fine under the hood. They didn't used to be,
but are now.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Jerry Casper <gremlingts@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  Ok, been tinkering with my new Hornet hoopdee, and  it's running better each time I go under the hood. Tonight, after I got home, I checked the vac advance using direct engine vacuum...the timing mark never moved off 8 BTDC at idle. I think it's runninng on ported vacuum, I feel nothing from the hose coming from the carb. But with it direct, it still doesn't work, so I'm sure it's dead.
>
> So, the next question is, should I bother repairing it, or just replace the whole distributor with a better version? I was thinking of the GM HEI conversion, I already have a distributor done (somewhere ), but I think I'd rather do a more Plug-n-Play if I can, I don't want to be cutting  and splicing wires to get it to work right now, plus a new coil, etc. May have to ANYWAY, but would rather have the P&P option to just drop something in for now and get it working better.
>
>  Any suggestions that won't cost me a fortune? Will a Jeep 4.0 distributor work, or would I need to go back to the older 4.2 engines? Thanks,
>
> Jerry in Virginia
>
>
>
>
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: http://splatter.wps.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20090318/5683e95d/attachment.htm
> _______________________________________________
> Amc-list mailing list
> Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list
>



-- 
All your arguments are invalid.
Enjoy your unstable system.
_______________________________________________
Amc-list mailing list
Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list