Well it happened to me… Saturday morning at cars and coffee I was about to leave and beat the rain when my 61 died at the stop sign. I quickly tried to restart but it was completely dead. I pushed it back into a parking spot and looked at the battery, the connections were tight. So I looked at the 30amp fuse and it was blown. Replaced it, turned the key and popped again. So I sat in the rain waiting for AAA. Once I got home I eliminated the the starter, generator and regulator as the issue. So I pulled the cover and distributor cap and there it was! One of the locked nuts on the rotor was loose and shorted the pertronix unit.

Just 1500 mile since installed, I know there were tight because I remember with my son installing it with my son. So I am done and back to points for now. I may try breakerless se unit.

 

I've been running points for the past 45 years on all my cars with no failures. As a professional mechanic for 40+ years, I can count on one hand the number of dead cars due to points issues. I can't begin to count the failures I've run into with HEI of all types over the years.....thousands of them.
As an auto tech, I feel that the reason that people switch out points and go breakerless is their mis-conception that mechanical points are unreliable compared to HEI. The opposite is true. HEI needs no periodic maintenance but will fail catastrophically. Points merely have to be changed out every 15,000 miles or so and will gradually retard the timing and reduce performance when they approach the end of their service life.

 

I am considering going back to points in my 66 and an MSD box, so points only act as a trigger and don’t really carry any load. I have heard most of the points for sale now are not very good quality. Do you have a particular brand you use? Thx.

 

Points are a good choice. Breakerless SE is a good choice, looks stock and you can change it back to the points and condenser in a matter of minutes, just carry a set with you.

 

I converted to pointless back in the 70's and now I am going back th points. The electrical pointless cant take a electrical spine, where points can take a beating and are easy to change. I compare electronic crap to woody Allen fighting Tyson. My 67 435HP has points.
I am with GTO guy ALL the way...
My son restored a 78 Chrysler with a 318 engine and so far 4 ignition modules. I'm afraid to drive it and am looking for a distributor that has points. I always had a extra set of points, few plugs, condenser and coil in the car. Never had to use them.
For high RPM I used to double spring them. Hard on the pad, but worked. Then the dual point came out and that worked just fine. Don't do much street racing and no more double spring points. Only problem with points that if their making contact and you forget to turn the key off after shutting down the points can burn. But, you cant look sideways at a ignition module without it going out.
We used to lift the battery ground from the battery to se if the system was charging, Yep they say that will blow the alt, but it was done over and over. I just did it for a second and the ignition module failed. Well should have used my volt meter, but got lazy.

Dom

 

I use NOS AC Delco, Filko, Neihoff, or Borg Warner sets sourced off of ebay, swap meets, etc. I have enough for my 3 GM cars to last the rest of my life, most likely. I get the old bakelite caps and rotors NOS too when I can. All made in USA, all reliable.

 

For guys like me who use the big cap HEI, I suggest you carry a spare module and the appropriate tool for emergency replacement. The modules may be better now than when first used in the 70s. I use them on my C2 and C4, and the C4 has over 200K miles with no ignition failure.

 

I have an HEI in the 66 right now and have no problem with them (GM OEM) but need a tach drive back in the 66. The only ones I can find with tach drive HEI are chi com crap. So I would have to buy one, strip it and use my GM stuff with the housing and shaft, and change to a melonite gear. And still go no shrouding. Not sure that’s worth it.

 

No doubt that Points are the Cats Meow. They have been around a long time and proved to be very reliable. If you like points ... good for you as the simplicity and reliability are top shelf.. that's a good thing.

In my case I have been using an MSD Distributor and the Digital 6AL Ignition box for a long time. I just in the past two years went over to the digital version of the 6AL. These components when mounted and installed correctly can and do last a long time. My setup has been on my 65 Vette for over 20 years both when it was a small block and now a BB 502. Sure....Like any electronic device they are prone to failure.

But due to the nature of quality of MSD products...(Now Owned by Holley).. they seem to be the performance choice of most Race teams in all Venues. I will be honest here and tell you that I carry a spare everything... But have never had to use any of it. The only other thing I dumped was the Carb as I got tired of crappy gas mileage and tear downs just to change jets and then do it again and again to hunt for the right A/F ratio.

The MSD Atomic EFI system I installed has now given me more driving pleasure and no worries about starting or cruising or Hot soaks Etc.Changing anything is at the touch of a button.
I know there is something about Points and a Carb when set right can give immense pleasure. The thought of tuning up an old school ride and driving it is very cool. Been there done that.

It was time for me to move on and stop tinkering.

 

How about telling us where you "heard" this bullshit?

Duke

 

Carrying the load vs acting as a trigger device or poor quality of current points?
Both right here on this forum in previous threads. I have been reading about this here for some time now.

 

Interesting take on disconnecting the battery. I wonder if that has any effect on the pertronix when I disconnect the battery and install a maintainer when I am not driving it for awhile? What really stinks is I took my tools bag with points out after the last car show when I cleaned out the car. Plus I was 1 mile from home and the car was running great up til then. go figure.

 

Welcome to the club! I was out late at night, on an unlit highway when my Pertronix **** the bed. No warning, just nothing. Ironic thing was, I had a set of points with me, but didn’t have the correct hardware to install them to the breaker plate.
Took the tow of shame home, put points back in and been there since.

 

So a rotor “locked nut” (??? Screw?) came loose and shorted out the pertroxix and that’s the pertronix fault?

Someone’s gonna hafta ‘splain that one to me......

I’ve been running Pertronix Ignitor I, II, and III for 20
plus years and never had a problem.

 

Sorry but I'm with Tux on this. Nothing wrong with points other than quality might be lacking now and on the coils even more so but blaming Pertronix for the rotor coming lose is not copasetic.

 

The engine was running when I did the 1 second disconnect. It must have spiked the module and that was that. Never blew a diod when doing the same or specially a generator or voltage regulator. Had a fork lift burn every wire up because of a wind storm and we needed to anchor a over turned airplane so it would not damage others. After replacing all the wires, the only thing that wouldn't work right was the generator? Voltage regulator, points, coil, and condenser all good. fuel gage seems to be inop, but starts up instantly even though it burnt every wire up when hooked up backwards. Points all the way for me. Modules are WEAK, and God bless all that have working ones. JUST be carefull and ALWAYS have tripple AAA.


Dom

 

I was thinking that same thing.

 

I have been making the the 1000+ mile trip from GA to NY and back every year for the last forty or so years with many different cars, including the 60 Vette and 55 t-Bird and others, I have been stranded on the road twice both times in a 94 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, and both times it was due to electronics failure, it never was used on a another trip, I have driven the Vette more than any of the other cars I have points, bias-ply tires and all.

Bill

 

Plug this set up in and forget about ignition parts inside the Distributor ...all Mag Plused to the MSD 6al Digital....This is Holley web site as they own and sell MSD...

https://www.holley.com/products/igni...let/parts/8572

https://www.holley.com/products/igni..._boxes/street/

Nothing to fail except the 6al box which you mount on the fender tub next to your gill slots ...nice and cool there..


Prices shown are list Web Prices...Cheaper when you hunt around.


BTW....points are Still Good...!!

 

I’m going to say if your only doing street driving point are fine. But if your competition racing where you spend a lot of time at high RPM then your fancy box is a good choice. I was to bet if you had three identical cars one with points, a widget and MSD type box. And did normal daily driving you would never know what’s under the cap