I bought pertronix 2 and installed on my stock 72 318 point distributor. Ran good for awhile until the rpms started taking a long time to return to idle when I let off the gas pedal. The distributor inards ended up being rusted and jammed up with old hard grease.

I ordered an A1-Cardone 30-3820 from summit. It came but had defective leaking vacuum advance. so they shipped me another, same problem. To add to the problem, the pertronix began to malfunction as well (no spark when + coil was getting 12v. It had proper .030 clearance double checked).

Im done with the cheap re manufactured distributors and pertronix. Sending them both back to summit. I'll have about $200-$300 to spend on a new ignition system.

What are my options? I dont need a top of the line system, just something that works right

I dont mind going back to points, if I could find a distributor that has been rebuilt properly and has good vacuum advance can. Or even rebuild my own if there is a kit for that.

Ive also seen some cheap (pro-comp I think?) ready to run electronic distributor conversions on ebay that come with dizzy, coil and plug wires. Never used one before, dont know what quality is like. Its about $140 with shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DODGE-273-318-34...936&vxp=mtr

Summit racing has an electronic kit for $200. Doesnt comewith coil or wires though but ive heard good things about it

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-850003/overview/make/dodge

Firecore all the way
http://www.manciniracing.com/bileldis.html

Its a little more expensive than I was planning on, but I've been reading up on it sounds like a good piece.

Im leaning towards the $140 kit, as this motor will only be in the car for a year at most, until we put a big block in. I called the Ebay seller, Don, and he warranties them for 3 years. Complete with wires, coil and dist/module.

The summit racing model, and the firecore, I would need to buy a new coil and possibly new wires if my current arnt compatible.

Hesitant to buy the cheaper kit though, I dont want to deal with unreliable parts and the likelyhood of potential problems is probably higher, but this guy has 100% positive feedback so it looks like no one has had issues with his kit.

what about taking the rusty dist apart & cleaning it & reassembly with the P? Sounds like the issue was the gummed up weights/slots not being free as opposed to the P being fubared. I'll help you with that if you like. An option would be to get a regular 70's electronic dist & a parts house ECU & a MP ballast or you can mount an HEI module under the dist & someone sells a bracket for that but it is pricey & it's easy to fab yourself & with that you can run a full 12V E coil.

Rebuilding the old distributor was my first thought. I can take my old distributor apart and can clean the rust and grime, but I dont know if I can find bushings at a reasonable cost, or a good vacuum can. The NOS bushing set on ebay is almost $50, and I havent seen any aftermarket replacement bushings yet. Also, I'm very weary of the stock style replacement vacuum cans as I've already got 2 bad ones in a row.

The pertronix is making me nervous, the engine randomly stopped getting spark for awhile then started working again. I dont want that happening while Im miles away from home. Im sending back the unit to summit.

If you know where to get bushings I have no problem rebuilding my stocker. points arent as efficient as electronic but it's nice to be able to carry a spare set in the glove box just in case.

here's the bushings from Lowes; 1&1/8" by 5/8" & a Grainger adj reamer (it was cheap). I ain't did nothing with this yet. How far down you install the top bushing dimention is in my other book at the shop, I will get that. dont have a part # for the lowes items but in their parts drawers they oughta be easy enough to locate. I wouldn't think the electronics of the P would come and go, any possibility of a loose conenction (there or elsewhere)

Doesn't Firecore make one with vacuum advance that can be used with the Mopar ECU (chrome box) and ballast resistor? Maybe I just missed it.

Cheap ? quik, Don't even need the MP ballast just a compatible one. and if you have problems the nearest parts house will have what you need. Don't forget the control box pigtail.
Just had a customers car with Mallory Unilite whack 2 modules @ 80+ a crack last week. No apparent reason. Converterd it over to the factory stuff and problem is over

Correct & if you have 1.5 or more total ohms (coil/ballast combined) you'll be fine

Couldnt find any loose connection. Was getting power at the coil so if it's a loose connection, then it's between the coil and the Pertronix or the distributor ground.

The electronic combo is fairly cheap, around $100-$150 (depending on brands) for the distributor, box, pigtail, ballast, and coil. I've had such bad luck with remand distributors coming w/bad vacuum pods though, and they arnt stocked at any local parts stores. Has anyone else experienced this?? Maybe I just had bad luck.

If I can put mine back together right I'll just stick with points. I still need a vacuum pod though. Standard motor products sells vacuum pods. I've never reamed bushings Robert, is the tool an off the shelf piece at lowes?? Is it pretty straight forward?

Well I talked myself right into the firecore ready to run distributor. I have a set of good plug wires that will work for it and I'm already wired for this type of ignition. I called them directly and he's putting a Chrysler style cap on it. Comes with their recommended coil as well.

Paid a little more than I wanted to hoping it's as great as people say

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

I just fired my 408 Saturday with the Firecore small block ready to run. The thing fired right up and sounded crisp with just a guess on the initial and total mechanical advance I wanted.

I shoulda bought something different also, I bought a Pertronix IgnitorIII billet distributor with built-in rev limiter. I had to grind on my cylinder head and the dist housing for a couple days just to get the thing to fit down into the block. Now I'm fighting innacurate rev limiter problems. I set it at 4200 just to test it and it kicks in at 3000. I'm afraid to test it at high RPM.

Im surprised that you had the issues with pertronix. In the past 10 years since I've known about them I think I've seen 5 people say they had issues. Mine has been flawless in the time Ive had it. But I went with the stage 1 inside a reman dizzy from the parts store with the pertronix coil and a gutted ballast. Also I've had great luck with reman dizzys, and I used the same brand you did. I think that you just had bad luck on those.

roe

With the Pertronix you are not suppose to get your 12v power from your coil because the coil 12v comes from the resistance side of the ballast resistor. You should get you 12v from the non resistance side of the ballast or some other ignition on 12v source.

Or you can gut the ballast and solder in a thick wire going across. Gets you your full 12v and keeps it looking stock if that matters to you.

Only if you have a coil that can handle the full 12v. One of the pertronix coils will allow you to do that, Not sure which I used.

How I hooked mine up was 1st I deleted the ballast resistor, then I spliced RUN and START both into 1 wire, and ran that to the positive side of the Flamethrower II coil. Then I ran the pertronix red wire to the positive coil as well, and the black wire to the negative side coil.

Correct, which is also why I stated that I used their coil. The reason that I like to do it that way is because I can carry a ballast and set of points/condenser in the glovebox in case the pertronix ever fails and just hook everything back up like stock in 5-10 mins...but it never has never failed me.