I am hoping that others who have swapped out their old points and condenser, with electronic ignition components can help me make this decision.

Should I make the switch to the better technology?
Do many people look down on doing it?

Thanks for your help.

Rich

 

Made the switch about 5 years ago and have not had to touch it since.
Move forward. Nobody knows unless you tell.

 

I would make the switch. There are several brands of cheap conversion kits, some good and some bad. I had one kit in a car and it came apart on me. Some of the cheaper kits will work just fine and I have one on one of my personal cars at the moment.

Some people like to do the full HEI conversion with the MSD 6AL with a blaster two coil and the billet tach drive distributor, some people do it with Mallory.

The key issue here is you can eliminate any point bounce on higher RPM engines, and you will also stop that pesky problem of leaving the key on and burning the points out.

IMHO

Willcox

 

check out MSD pro billet ready to run distributer,no boxes and good to 70000+rpm.love mine no problems.

 

I just did it with my '71 BB. It was a good upgrade, the engine will start easier, more stable engine.

Dont buy Mallory! .. buy MSD.

 

But check the specs carefully. I have points/condensor on my 1974 and it runs very nicely. On my 1967 I have a Pertronix I unit and the module will definitely fry if you leave the key on. I believe the Pertronix II has protection against that.

As to the question, who really cares what is under the distributor cap? With the one-wire replacements one can only guess.

 

I did it on my 65 and my 61. Every 5 or 6 years I can count on replacing the module on the Mallory Unilite. They are $125 a pop to replace. I'm sticking with points in my 68.

 

Wow, that's one hell of a high rev motor you got there

 

Points will keep you driving even if they start to deteriorate. If one of the electronic conversion parts dies, you will be walking or hoping you have good cell phone coverage.

Tough call - I have an HEI in one car that only gave me trouble when I tried to "improve it" with aftermarket parts - went back to the GM parts and have had no problems with it. The other car has a points with CD box added and is giving me trouble now. Probably wires running too close to each other. I should be able to fix it by moving the wires apart but we will see.

If I were in your shoes, I would probably stick with the points. Simple to diagnose and simple to work on. Parts are cheap and available just about everywhere. You can carry spares in the glove box just in case.

-Mark.

 

the real questions are WHY you think changing to something different is "better" technology and what problem(s) are you trying to solve by making a switch?

Changing to an electronic conversion such as Pertronix, Breakerless SE, etc does nothing to increase performance. All you are doing to changing from one type of switch to another. You don't gain performance, economy, or anything else. Your only "advantage" is not having to take 5 minutes once a year to check and set dwell. Most people with the older cars drive limited miles a year so you can go many years if you want without even having to change the points and condensor although I tend to change them once a year during my 'Spring tune-up" on my '65. Even if you change them yearly it takes a lot of years of buying new points to equal what the cost of the conversion kit costs.
Additionally, points are overall more reliable than the conversion kits and if the conversion kit fails they do so without any warning and you are stuck on the side of the road unless you went thru the expense of buying and keeping in the car a spare unit or at least a spare set of points to reinstall. I've seen plenty of threads on this forum alone from people whose electronic modules failed and left them stranded. I've NEVER seen a thread from anyone that their points left them stranded on the side of the road.

If you are looking for any type of "upgrade",going for a tach-drive HEI or by adding an igintion box such as one of the MSD ignition boxes to work with your points distributor would at least give you something worthwhile if you insist on just spending money.

If you feel your points distributor is not doing a good enough job for one reason or another chances are it just needs to be rebuilt. I'd contact Lars and for about the cost, or less, of buying an electronic conversion kit have him rebuild your unit and recurve it. It will run great.
I've had the points distributor in my '65 up to 7500rpm with no points float and the motor was still pulling hard.

BTW, I see you are in Wilmington! Nice to have someone else close by here on the forum.
Have you had your car long? I don't recall ever seeing it around at shows or cruises.

 

I have only owned my 70 convertible for 2 months. I am looking to learn more from local owners and take part in events close to home. If you know of any coming up, please let me know.

Also, I agree with your assessment of the points vs. electronic ignition. I should probably buy a dwell meter and learn how to use it.

Regards,
Rich

 

Rich

check out the website of our club. something you might be interested in, lots of good people and usually some good activities and events.
http://www.vetteclub.org/index.html
In the 'Shows" section I try to list most shows that are fairly local and within a reasonable driving distance.

If you want, you are welcome to bring the car to my place and I'll show you how to use a dwell meter to check and set dwell.
Check the Sears website, they have decent dwell meters for sale, including one that has a tach function built in which is also handy for when checking and setting timing and it's not expensive. If you don't have one already, you can also pick up a nice dial-back timing light from Sears.

 

If you have a stock engine or one that doesn't have red-line above 6000rpm....why change? Points work well and can be less trouble than costly electronic conversions. All you need is a dwell meter to set them properly. Buy good quality points/condensers and check them every 2500 miles or so. If you decide to go to electronic ignition, buy a good brand and wire it up correctly for your car.

 

For my '70 I got a tach drive HEI for about $165 about 5 years ago. Never had a problem since then. As for performance I don't feel it made any difference vs points. Note - you'll also need new plug wires with more juice.

 

bump

 

The previous owner of my '73 converted to HEI and in the process replaced the mechanical tach with an electronic one. I'm glad he did it as it is a change I would have made myself. The GM HEI units have proven very reliable over the years. I'm sure a quality aftermarket unit would be the same. As far as being able to keep spare parts for the points style distributors, why couldn't you do the same for the HEI? All of the electronic components within the GM HEI distributor are available.

DC