[GTO JONES]

My son bought 2 of them, both failed went back to points no problem.

[400 Lemans]

Had one that lasted maybe 1000 miles and went out at about 60 mph just like turning the key off. Ended up on side of the road and had my spare points to replace it with. Slung module by the power wires as far as i could throw it. Back on the road again.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by 400 Lemans

Had one that lasted maybe 1000 miles and went out at about 60 mph just like turning the key off. Ended up on side of the road and had my spare points to replace it with. Slung module by the power wires as far as i could throw it. Back on the road again.

LMAO! It sure would be nice to see a video of that.

[TCSGTO]

I've had a Ignitor III module with a rev limiter for 5 or 6 years and it has worked well but is currently being replaced with a set of points and separate rpm limiter. I'll be using the Accel 32oz. point set.

Even with a good timing chain and the Sims mod timing is starting to jump around at idle and act erratic, and its not because of weak springs. I never noticed any performance gain with the module but liked the fact it had the built in limiter.

[My442]

I have run a Pertronix unit in my 442 for 20 years.

The Pertronix II for about 12 years, and the Retronix III for about 8 years.

The key to making them live is to use the correct Pertronix coil AND feed them 12 volts.

They do not run well using the factory resistance wire.

[jamaca85]

i just use a stock type HEI with a good coil nothing fancy. works great on the 11 second firebird for years no issues

[mback12000]

Originally Posted by jamaca85

i just use a stock type HEI with a good coil nothing fancy. works great on the 11 second firebird for years no issues

I agree this is the best simple solution for a street car. And cheapest. I ran high 10's with the same setup - a stock HEI with a good coil.

[neasb]

Had one installed on my 65 since 2002- never an issue. I replaced it several months ago with a new Pertronix and flame thrower coil. Not because the old unit failed, but felt it was time due to age. No troubles so far with new unit.

[Cliff R]

Points and condenser make more sense these days than ever before. Right to start with the vast majority of these vehicles woln't see 20,000 miles in the next 200 years, getting driven mostly in nice weather and couple of trips to work and maybe a weekend outing each month.

I LOVE setting distributors up with points and always buy two sets. One set get the dwell set then goes in the glove box, the other installed, dwell set, engine timed, and we're in business.

I'll also add that aside from a very slight advantage on cold starts and improved idle with MSD stuff (if your carb is too lean), a set of points is a fine high performance item. I still remember years ago when a very good friend and fellow racer swapped out the points distributor we had set up for his race car and replaced it with an MSD billet unit. He'd been running 6.50's around 104-105 MPH 1/8th mile and the car immediately slowed down about .03-.05 seconds. We couldn't figure it out, till some old time told us that even though both distributors were "locked-out", the points provided some natural timing retard at high RPM's accounting for the very slight performance advantage.

Jump ahead to about 15 years ago just for fun we decided to back to back an MSD billet distributor against my "stock" HEI, that uses a factory 990 module, stock weights, springs, etc. The only mod is that a positive stop for the advance is welded in. The dyno runs were near blueprints of each other with a very slight advantage to the HEI, but nothing to start doing back-flips over.

Once again it shows just how good the factory parts really are, and they are very reliable in long term service, unlike a lot of this aftermarket crap that is available these days.......FWIW.......Cliff

[Dragncar]

I did a test years ago at the track. My friend has a distributor machine and I set 2 distributors up exactly like my 62 iron unit Dan Whittmore set up for my 455 with Accel points. One was a HEI and the other was OEM points but with Petronixs conversion. They all ran 12.10s I decided there was no power to be found in distributors as long as they work like they are supposed to.
I understand a crank trigger will get you 5-7 HP in a race engine though.
I have a couple of interesting old school duel point distributors. One is a Accel and the other is a Mallory. The one with the giant brass condensers on the outside. People just gave them to me because I am kinda the local Pontiac guy and they had no use for them. Maybe I will test them out one day but doubt I will find anything either.

[Will]

A distributor cannot add power to an engine. It can only ensure the engine is making the most power it's capable of by delivering adequate spark at the right time. Any distributor that can do that reliably is a good distributor.

Frankly, a stock HEI is all 95% of street engines need. Well, recurved for the application, of course. I just wish someone would make quality weights and center plates for them, not the ultra-crappy stuff that's available now. I mean really, how hard can it be to stamp and heat treat steel of the appropriate thickness and weight?

[Sun Tuned]

Well it looks like I stumbled onto to something yesterday....

Google search
Standard LX807....

[Will]

Originally Posted by Sun Tuned

Well it looks like I stumbled onto to something yesterday....

Google search
Standard LX807....

Weird that none of the links that come up say what the actual application for this is. No description of what it's for on any link I looked at. if you didn't know, how would you know?

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by Sun Tuned

Well it looks like I stumbled onto to something yesterday....

Google search
Standard LX807....

Looked at Amazon for that number.

They suggest LX809, LX811, LX813, LX814, LX816 which are also "electronic conversions" fitting various applications. For all I know there are additional "conversion" numbers that Amazon either doesn't carry, or that I haven't stumbled onto.

Originally Posted by Sun Tuned

After talking to the tech guru at pertronix, I found out if it doesn't come in their box and have their stickers on the actual Hall effect... it's not theirs...

...Apparently Standard is manufacturing a knockoff of the pertronix. Oreilleys around here is marketing the thing as a pertronix. It's not. Just call one and ask if they have an lx807, and they will tell you all about it.

Just because Pertronix has disowned the Standard-branded products, doesn't mean they didn't build the thing. Perhaps they sell in bulk to Standard at a discount, part of the discount is that they will never have to deal with warranty or "Tech line" issues on Standard-boxed product. So no "Pertronix" box and label, and no after-sale support.

Or the Communists really have knocked-off another product, and Standard is the importer/collaborator/patsy. This would be disturbing, 'cause I previously had a lot of respect for Standard and their upmarket Blue Streak line--but the last time I bought Blue Streak (a "Ford"-style fender-mounted starter solenoid) it was also Made in China, so it went back.




For my part, I consider the Pertronix about as suspect as Mallory Uni-Lite; both are under-designed, lacking normal and ordinary protection circuitry, and therefore unreasonably fragile.

[tom s]

Anyone that runs multi carbs cant run the big top HEIs and virtually all my cars either are,had been or will be multi carbed I continue to use stock dizzys with the pertronix conversion.I have had friends buy the pertonix dist and had issues.Tom

[KEN CROCIE]

Crane/Comp/FAST XRI--I love em, been dead reliable, has rev limiter, easy to install. Comments?

[Sun Tuned]

Tom you need to let me send you one of my standard cap HEI setups to try.

Iron case, HEI guts..... and I mean just that, full sizeHEI guts. External canister coil. Got 12 running around now with 2 pushing 100,000 miles each.


Ken, I've installed 3 for customers... haven't heard back any issues so far. Even have a couple of the XR700's left. The old ones.

[tom s]

Ken,I'm happy with what I have been using.Tom

[dataway]

I came up with all AMC applications for that part number.

I have certainly learned to love points ... like has been said, with a set in the glove box with a condenser, you probably have the most reliable ignition made.

Has anyone EVER seen a set of points fail ... I don't mean a set with 50,000 miles on them and no maintenance, I mean a set of points that breaks and will not work.

[Cliff R]

The only time I've seen points fail is when the engine stalled out and the key was left on for an extended period of time and the points just happened to be closed.

Kind of interesting but I drove and raced a 1970 440 powered Roadrunner for many years. Drove it all thru High School and had it quite a few years after I got married. It had a set of the better Mallory points made back in the 1970's with the thick rubbing block on them, not the later production with the short block. I ran the SAME set of points in 3 different engines the entire time and zero issues. Aside from checking the gap occasionally and running a folded up piece of 600 grit auto body sandpaper between the contacts to smooth them out, they never grumbled once. I'll bet I had the big 440 to 6000 rpms at least a zillion times and it NEVER faltered or even acted like it just would keep right on revving.

The key to long point life is to make sure you have the correct ballast resistor in place or using the factory wire to the coil that has the resistance built it. Also stay away from "bug zapping" coils, they can be very hard on the points and LOTS of folks that went that route back when I was in High School had continuous issues with points ignition systems.

I also saw it mentioned someplace about using a points distributor to signal an MSD. Several folks I know do that for dedicated drag racing applications and have had the same points in place for decades with zero issues.

Any type of electronic ignition system that uses a module will eventually fail, it's just the nature of those things. I've had far better success yanking used 990 modules out of junk yard and swap meet distributors that buying anything over the counter. The 990 module in my current HEI is from the mid 1970's and still doing fine. Right on the dyno that HEI outran an MSD billet unit in a back to back test, not by much but it did make slightly more power clear across the loaded RPM range.......FWIW........Cliff