[Cliff R]

Pertronix is NOT an upgrade from a good stock set of points. Like every other type of aftermarket points conversion or bug-zapping distributor they are going to fail or cause issues. Not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when".

Not only do they fail but I've ran into a lot of them that don't work well at high RPM's and of course the owner blames the carburetor. The last time this happened was when one of my customers had his fresh 454 Chevy LS5 engine on the dyno. The dyno operator HATED Q-jets and even worse those "flat" cast iron intakes used on the big 454's. The engine wasn't making chit for power and DONE by 4500rpms. Of course the engine builder/dyno operator is hitting my phone and I'm getting the "I told you that Quadrajunk carb and POS iron intake wouldn't feed my engine" crap.

The best pull they made was 425hp @ 4500rpms then it just fell off the graph. I asked them about fuel delivery, etc and finally got around to the distributor and got a very nasty response that he built it for the engine and set the curve to be all-in by 2800rpms and it was set exactly to 36 degrees total timing. Then he mentioned that he installed a Pertronix to replace the points. I told him to toss that POS in the trash can and put the points back in it. Reluctantly they did so and the very next pull was 587hp @ 5800rpm's!

That's about the 200th time I've seen that sort of thing with aftermarket bug-zapping crap. I'm telling anyone on here not to use them because my comments typically get responses where folks have used them succesfully on everything they've owned since Moby Dick was a minnow. I'm only saying that doing this sort of thing full time for decades I've ran into WAY too many issues with those parts and will not use any of them........FWIW......

[F ROCK]

I switched to pertronics about 5 years ago when i couldnt find a decent set of points.
I was in the habit of buying 3 sets of Echlin points so i hopefully find one good set. That stopped working out.
The old echlin points seemed to last a lifetime but the ones i was finding were bad right out of the box.
...And then theres those unipoints or whatever. I've never had a working set of those.
In frustration, i went to the pertronics.
I've had no problems with mine, yet.
Mine is an early version, the first "Igniter" i think.

[Formulajones]

It's the pertronix lol.

I don't trust those things. Had a set in my bird back when they were only a pertronix 1. It did the same thing, would get warm and shut down. Only did that on the highway with extended time at rpm. Back roads were fine. I could park on the highway about 20 minutes and it would refire like nothing wrong. Drive another 5 miles and shut down again. Sent it back in to pertronix for testing and they did find something wrong with it. Sent another new one free. Installed that and same thing. Drive around back roads for 2 weeks and fine. Soon as I hit the highway it shut down withing 5 miles.
I reinstalled the points and it's been perfect for the last 20-something years. Ran the same set of points for 15 years without a single issue. I run the accel points in everything here that still has points (4 cars) and never a problem.

I came to the conclusion that the pertronix did not like the Pontiac with the distributor buried in the back basically under the intake with little to no air flow. Gets hot and shuts down, because I had better luck on Chevrolets and fords with that pertronix where distributors weren't so buried and had better exposure but these days I avoid the points replacement junk and just prefer points, very simple and never lets me down.

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by F ROCK

I switched to pertronics about 5 years ago when i couldnt find a decent set of points.
I was in the habit of buying 3 sets of Echlin points so i hopefully find one good set. That stopped working out.
The old echlin points seemed to last a lifetime but the ones i was finding were bad right out of the box.
...And then theres those unipoints or whatever. I've never had a working set of those.
In frustration, i went to the pertronics.
I've had no problems with mine, yet.
Mine is an early version, the first "Igniter" i think.

All the part numbers for Accel points, Napa's real Accel points they sell in their boxes and the good Accel caps and rotors sold at Napa are here.
Accel points have never changed and are as good as they ever have been.
Just bought Napa's 8$ rotor and its the same as Accel. Bought 100$ worth of points and rotors recently.
Accel points will cost you 60 $. Same points at Napa will cost you just over 30$ and have the 32oz spring.
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=865641