distributorguy

I put the Detroit locker in our race truck. It made the truck harder to push, steer, turn, drive. But in a straight line its everything you'd want!

If you look under the points plate, there will be a number stamped in the piece that has 2 slots for the weights like "11". This is 11 distribtor degrees, doubled at the crank via the timing chain set. Earlier ones were 13.5 but it could be anything.

Hey Turbosauce, "I don't think anyone commenting has an idea how to build a certified cage cause for one your main hoop must be one piece." Ummmm.... mine is certified for 200 mph+ at Bonneville... Must be junk because your guy didn't build it? They refuse NHRA and NASCAR cages because they aren't safe enough without modifications. Yours wouldn't pass either. There are different rules for different types of racing. Street is altogether different and doesn't need to meet any rule book, but does need to be made safely. To weld the top of the cage, drop it through holes in the floor, then lift it back up onto plate or boxes to fit the body. I still wouldn't fit a cage to a street truck, unless you're 5'2" tall or shorter, or you have an extended cab.

You don't need new springs. The spring tabs are adjustable, and the originals will actually perform well if you clean up the weights and make sure there's no grease on them.

The Jegs Ford Ranger cage is a good place to start, but will require 4x6 mounting plates to the cab floor/sills along with a lot of custom trimming, coping, etc... I tied mine into the frame directly, along with adding 2 rear points, helmet restraint, etc... For a street vehicle you'll find that an adequate cage not only takes up precious real estate, but if not done properly can cause more harm than good.

$250 for a used core is very high. I used to buy them used for $30. But then again I charge $200 for rebuilds, and that's cheap compared to a few other REAL vendors who actually rebuild them, not just clean and reassemble - there's a huge difference in how well your truck will run and how long it lasts.

Mike, you're one of those guys who just keeps spouting BS with which you have limited experience. Provide proof for what you're saying. Show me how a Pertronix can "shut off" outside signals in their circuitry - or any other brand. To say that no one uses points is idiotic. About 60% of classic cars still use points, and that number is growing as people learn and compare. No electronic ignition is "smart enough" to reject signals that appear correct. None of them. Dwell time is just the "dead time" when they would normally receive no signal. It doesn't mean they can't receive a signal. They can and they do. Especially Pertronix and Crane/FAST. They have virtually no shielding. They can be overridden by a stronger outside signal. The early version of the Matchbox is similar. The later version has the best shielding, but has a stack of its own problems negotiating low and high speed signals due to latency issues but makes a great daily driver setup. ALL electronics will underperform a set of properly adjusted points, so if you're looking for the best system that needs annual maintenance (not weekly or monthly but annual) points is it. A typical set of points lasts 30k miles with about 5-6 filing and adjustment sessions to keep it working at its best. Always set the gap to the high side of the adjustment range, let it wear to the low side of the adjustment range, and if you're smart you'll cheat each setting by 1 thou. That gets you into a 7k mile interval between services. All I've done for the last 14 years is this. Ignition systems. 40-70 hours a week every week. After about the first 10 times seeing this issue at the chassis dyno (the engine bay provides a Faraday cage that the engine dyno doesn't) you start to see a trend. Its consistent and irrefutable. Its easy to solve, and it happens consistently. After seeing it 50+ times, it becomes a standard tuning scenario. After 100+ times its old news and you start fixing it before the first pull. How many times have you been to the dyno Mike??? What do you use to diagnose misfires? Your ears? A test light?

There is a constant low voltage signal pulsing on and off hundreds of times per second through the module and its wiring, and the retroactive pulse of high voltage power through the plug wires can send a false signal to the "inert???" module, similar enough to what it sees from flying magnets to cause it to fire again, between "planned" pulses. The magnetic field that builds inside the distributor builds up until the misfire occurs - maybe after every 100-200 cylinder fires. The coil can discharge when its not supposed to, resulting in a weak spark (undercharged coil) the next time its supposed to fire. Call it bullshit, but what happens on the chassis dyno is real. It results in an average of 7-10 hp loss on ANY 4 cylinder at ANY level of build. You can see the misfires in the air/fuel mixture. It goes away when you use points, which is why we deliberately chose to use points through 9600 rpm, successfully. I have thousands and thousands of happy customers who now understand why and how points are better than electronics inside a distributor. Move the electronics somewhere else, (crank fired ignition), and electronics become superior to points, in most cases but not all. I've spent thousands of my own hard earned $$$$s to learn how to avoid misfires, and pass on this information to those who are willing to listen. I'd make more money selling electronics, but they don't offer the best drivability, unless you're trying to use a clapped out pile of crap distributor. In that case you can mask some of the issues with the fixed dwell of electronics, at the expense of EMI/RFI induced misfires.

And your electronic ignition.

The only reason the "matchbox" distributor runs better than the points distributor is the advance curve it has. Its closer to ideal. When you put the Matchbox timing curve into an early points distributor, the points will outperform the electronics. Dyno proven, repeatedly. Getting the timing right is far more important than what trigger you use, then it comes down to reliability and consistency. Electronics next to spark plug wires inherently have misfire issues. Ask any electrical engineer - or any electrical hobbyist for that matter. Low voltage signals are always affected by adjacent high voltage wires, unless you can gain ample separation AND shielding. My happiest customers are the ones I talked out of electronics. Over fifteen thousand of them. No joke. The other few thousand can't or don't know how to adjust points.

To answer the initial question, Mallory was bought out by MSD about 3 years ago. A year later MSD was acquired by Holley. At that point Holley retired the Mallory brand. Any parts you find now are either defective or Chinese knock-offs of the originals, not the same quality and they weren't known for great quality to start with. Mallory distributors were always designed to be race distributors - meaning they need to be rebuilt or at least recurved annually to continue to run well. The OEM Hitachi distributor was always a more robust unit, and can be made to outperform any aftermarket distributor AND last years and years without any more than an occasional points adjustment. The fact that we ran a single point OEM Hitachi distributor at the Bonneville salt flats turning nearly 10,000 rpm run after run for 3 years is testament to their durability.

I ran into this at Bonneville: take apart the connector at the side of the distributor where the wires hook up. Throw away the corroded screw and nut after you go to the hardware store and buy brand new ones. If you get a flashing test light at the negative side of the coil while cranking, and the cap, rotor, and plug wires are all in their correct places, the only thing left is to check and or set the timing. Pull you r #1 spark plug and put it into its wire, then ground it to bare metal and turn the engine over. You should see a spark at the plug. If so follow the instructions below. If not, you still have a points issue. Scroll down to "setting timing in a disturbed engine" http://advanceddistributors.com/wordpress1/links/ There's a lot of advice on this page that's come from decades of research rather than decades of myths. With all this info, anyone should be able to get any engine running on points.

I vote for dual 1 3/4" SUs - the British ones, or the Z Hitachis. You get better throttle response than any Webers made, and power is good through 6k. They're also very easy to set up and maintain with a far shorter learning curve than a dual DCOE setup.