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The old wire ends were closed male ends as you can see in the picture (the orange ones).
New wires that are advertised for female distributor sockets do not have identical male ends..... they are smaller female ends that fit into the larger female distributor terminals.
I looked at a few different sets and none of them have male ends like the old orange ones.
Why? and am I OK going with the "smaller female" ends (black ones in the picture) - the boot on some of them slides up and out of the distributor terminal.
After a long convo with Summit tech support I was able to explain my concern. These ends are interchangeable and correct for my female socket distributor terminal. As for them sliding up and out, I was told to try to enlarge the wire end ring so it sits inside tighter.
Those wire ends caused me many hours of frustration back in the 70's trying to track down a high RPM miss fire in my 340 Duster. I was 17 years old and believed everything I read in the magazines at that stage in my life. Get some decent plug wire terminals.
The ones on the left are actually the correct ones for a female socket distributor. They snap in, you just have to press them in a little harder. Ive just never came across such setup so thought I was supposed to see male post ends like the orange ones.
Although aftermarket distributors can vary, yours pictured left are for oem HEI and yours right are for oem points distributor.
Never run into universal contacts as you say the Summit guy suggested.
I think he was stringing you a long line of BS.
The following MSD wires have the same ends as the ones pictured on the left. They are made for female distributor terminals. Check out the MSD picture.