[Formulajones]

The new pertronix are supposed to have a fail safe protection built in where they shut down if overheated.

Matter of fact that's the issue I had with them in my Firebird years ago except it wasn't from leaving the key on, it kept happening on long highway cruises at extended RPM intervals. It would just shut down like you turned the key off. Sit for 15 mintues and it would fire up like nothing happened. I could drive the back roads at lower speeds and lower rpms and it would work just fine.

Pertronix warrantied both units and I replaced them twice. However after the 2nd unit did the same thing I left the brand new warrantied 3rd unit on the shelf where it still sits today.

I determined on the Firebird with that distributor hidden down low and behind that intake manifold, it just wasn't getting enough air flow and eventually that module would just overheat.

I will say I never had this issue on the Chevrolets I converted, where those distributors are up higher and more open to airflow.

Ken, I've converted a few cars over for customers to the Crane units with the built in rev limiters and no complaints at all from those. Also used a couple of the M&H Electric 1-wire conversions without complaints.

However these days I stick with points in my own cars. I never have to adjust them, just check them with a dwell meter once in a while, usually during an oil change, takes 20 seconds. They are dead nuts reliable for us, and we use them in our daily drivers.

Dataway, to answer your question.....NO. I've never had a points failure in anything in the last 35 years. I run Accel points exclusively and have them in 4 different cars here. 2 of them are daily driven. The points in my Firebird were nearly 20 years old and running perfectly when I decided to replace them last year before a trip to the dragstrip, and for the record, the fresh points and plugs didn't do a damn thing for the car. Still ran identical. The set in our Z go to 7,000 rpm no problem and never skips a beat. The points in the 56 Nomad have been in there since 1985 and it still purrs like a kitten. All the cars will fire off with a blip of the key.

All the talk about points being unreliable, constant maintenance, hard to start, I simply find all that to be hogwash.

Not to mention like Cliff touched on, if Points ever did fail at any point in time, I can have a set in the car in 10 minutes on the side of the road. What are the chances your car breaks down in front of Summit or Jegs running a conversion kit? Here in Arizona the chances are ZERO. LOL When you're in the middle of the desert you'll appreciate the simplicity of the points.

I have nothing against electronic ignitions, however I find the conversion kits a little risky. Sometimes okay, sometimes not. I'm just not willing to take chances with them anymore. And now with the knockoffs that Sun Tuned is finding, it's an even riskier proposition. As far as O'Reily's goes, they lost my respect when I went in asking for a set of Accel points, which they used to carry. After getting looked at like I had 3 eyeballs and then the comment that they felt sorry for me that I was still running points, (from a guy that was older than me no less) I realized how ill informed and inexperienced the counter people are there. Especially in an area where Arziona is somewhat of a classic car mecca. O'Reaily's even stopped carrying a lot of the holley carb parts that used to hang on the wall. So the store has really become no use to me.