Helped a friend last night "try" to install an Ignitor III setup in his points distributor. I'm disappointed overall. The instructions were poor, stating to "use the original screws" to attach the Ignitor III plate to the distributor housing, but they were of different thread pitch. Now, there were screws included in the box, but no mention of using them if the originals didn't fit. I realize this isn't much of a big deal, but it is an installation inconsistency.

Next problem, which pretty much made it unusable, the arm of the vacuum advance is too long and interferes with the bottom Ignitor III plate. The Ignitor III plate can only install in one position due to the screw locations even after fiddling. I know I'm no master mechanic, but I just couldn't see a way to make it fit and work properly. I told him I was unhappy with the fitment and design of it, and suggested he return it to Summit.

It seems to be a really great idea, along the lines of their previous distributor upgrades, but at this point very poorly executed, at least for the B/RB Mopars. So, I can't recommend it, at least until some of these shortcomings are resolved. Maybe a conspiracy to get you to order their Billet Ignitor III distributors! Lol! Anybody else experience these issues? Install was on a Fury III 383 car.

Actually, I'm pretty glad I went with the Skip White distributor now, as I was having second thoughts about my decision.

What distributor?

Did you go directly to the Pertronix site and look for footnotes on compatibility?

Wrong part in box?

I installed the III in a points distributor and experienced a few problems. I had to enlarge the screw holes in the baseplate and retap them for the stock screws. My issue with the vacuum advance arm was that it was binding between the upper and lower plates on the pertronix unit. I fixed it by taking the upper and lower plate apart and very gently bending them (think very slight concave/convex) to open up a bit more space between the upper and lower plate in the area where the vacuum advance arm inserts and travels during the normal vacuum pull.probably only had to bend a few thousandths... IF you look at this picture you can see how everything is oriented related to the vacuum canister and arm.

FOLLOW-UP

Yup, that screw thread problem annoyed me, after my friend (not so mechanically inclined) was trying to FORCE thread the original screws into the Pertronix breaker plate which was obviously a different thread. Then again, most good techs would check and realize that.

After an e-mail exchange with Marvin at Pertronix, he sent out a breaker plate that had a bit more "cut-back" and thus more clearance for the vacuum advance arm. At this point, we had already returned the Pertronix III and re-ordered a Pertronix II, but it appears as though it would have worked with the new (replacement) breaker plate.

Marvin seemed to know right away what the issue was and offered to send the new plate, so, I'm thinking this is a part/compatibility issue they know about, or may have since remedied, but there may be still some "old" style plates in the channel that are being sold.

My friend is debating now whether to send the PII back and get the PIII ignition and coil, again, but it seems to me on his street driven car the only difference is the rev limiter and supposed "multi-spark" but IMHO, I've never seen a multi-spark box increase any performance I could feel or fuel economy, except on the Jaguar V12 Mays "Fireball" head where the "shower of sparks" assisted ignition of the "A/F-stream" under the 13.5:1 CR resulting in DIRTY, DIRTY V12 torque.

So, Kudos to Pertronix for being spot on in their response and offering to FIX the problem free-of-charge. They make my wall of fame.

Not sure of the cost difference but the rev-limiter would be a nice feature. Could save the motor one day if he gets a little to excited.

Post how it performs when you're up & running.