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My 69 small block has the chrome cover over the dizzy and coil. If I go to an HEI, the larger size with tach drive, will it still fit inside this enclosure? I'd love the starting and reliability of HEI but I want to keep this cover for sure.
Maybe my question should be, does anyone make a standard size HEI with the tach drive for the 69 Corvette?
I now I could always go PerTronics module but I want to replace the tires dizzy altogether.
Craig
p.s. Speaking of tachs, trying to replace the tach cable is kicking my butt!
I put lectric limited hei in my distributor. It looks original because it has only one wire like the points had .I had a new hei tach drive unit in mine not long after I got it but like the chrome covers so got rid of it for the lectric limited one. You might have to rebuild your original distributor to remove any play you have .
Due to the coil being mounted in the cap the HEI will not fit inside the OEM covers. Getting your original dist rebuilt as 'sug' suggested isn't that expensive. Most speed shops can perform this for you and you can have them curve it for more performance. Crane cams also sells a electronic pickup. Remember the coil needs to be changed when converting from points to an electronic p/u dist. T
FWIW, at one time, my wife owned a '79, which of course, had an HEI from the factory. It did not have the metal shield around the distributor, but instead had one that was plastic.
Hi C,
About the tach cable…..doing some "kicking".
While the tachometer cable fitting unscrews from the distributor drive it just slides off the fitting on the back of the tachometer once the 'clip' is depressed.
Putting it back on is even easier since the clip clicks into position by itself as you side the cable on the fitting.
This can usually be done by reaching up behind the tachometer without having to loosen or drop the dash pad.
Regards,
Alan
Push on the small tab that is below the connection to release the cable.
To use the chrome on the HEI dizzy, you will have to modify the main "wrapper". The top does not need to be altered.
Rather than cut up the chrome on mine, I made the "wrapper" in two pieces out of polished Stainless Steel.
On My 69 350 I converted the original distributor to electronic with a Pertronix PNX-91181 Ignitor. It worked great but last year I put on an Edelbrock Pro-Flow EFI, Mallory SSI, and converted the tach to electronic.
Converting the distributor is simple and I would recommend this upgrade. I think the Petronix kit is around $120 now and uses your existing coil, cap, and wires. I still have the one I took off and guess I could sell it. PM me if you are interested.
I have the Mallory Electric Conversion on my 427/400......
Starts quick and no one can tell it is there......
Food for thought....
The MSD Tach Drive unit is the best for performance...but must be used with a box.
Reason being is the mechanical advance is very straight forward and easy to do.....
You will also have to use the "old style" cap with these.....
69 HEI conversion (physical size question)
