Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

Oops, wrong sketch. I mean, now we see why it's best to remove the distributor to change the points. Lost nuts and screws have a way of jamming the centrifugal advance mechanism, so the odds are pretty strong you're in for further troubles.

(Actually, now we see multiple good reasons to quit faffing with points and put in one of several good electronic ignition systems).

Threadlocker: Not wise.
Poor-quality points: Not wise.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

HEI conversion is very much on my list of things to do. Along with 3.5 billion other things. ^_^

Is it possible to still even find good-quality points? I don't know much of where to look for things like that, and these days it seems like *everything* is made in China of questionable quality at best. Is this a brand thing? Or does it vary even within manufacturers - some are better for some parts, some are better for others, and it's just experience and word of mouth which help you determine between the two?

_________________
<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

AIRTEX / WELLS 8A2 Matched Ventilated Snap In Terminal
With Chrysler Distributor

STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS CH14V

STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS CH14VT T-Series

AIRTEX / WELLS 4P1022 Matched Ventilated Snap In Terminal
With Chrysler Distributor


All of these are available on Rockauto, prices range from $1.80-$4.50 plus shipping.

_________________
Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Thanks, Reed. Are these brands to generally trust overall? I know other SMP parts are recommended for things like distributer caps, and I have a ballast resistor from them sitting in my Rockauto cart right now. I'm just not quite sure how to suss out whether a part is worth getting if I haven't seen it listed around here, really.

_________________
<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Cars are like that.
Echlin CS-851 is still available at any NAPA store. It's been years since I bought a set of points, so I have no idea how badly the quality on these has skidded, but of all the sets still available it's the one I would try to buy. I do know that Old Car Parts Northwest has thousands of sets of them, old stock from when they were definitely American-made.

Beyond avoiding points altogether, I avoid ventilated points. They are one of those ideas that seemed good in theory, but the minor benefit they theoretically give (air flowing thru the hole in the stationary point is supposed to cool the points) is more than cancelled out by the drawback (hole in contact = less contact area = higher current density = higher heat). That knocks out most points other than the Echlin CS-851.

And never ever buy anything from Standard Motor Products that has a "T" suffix on its part number. That's their "Tru-Tech" line, which is the happy-sounding name they put on their line of bottom-of-the-barrel garbage from China.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thaaaat's what the hole was in the old points set. That makes so much sense now.

Also, I noticed the T-series description when trying to figure out the difference between the SMP CH14V and CH14VT. When I saw this, all the red flags and alarms went off:
"Standard T-Series is a competitively priced line containing some of the most popular part numbers to help you meet your market needs. The Standard T-Series is a fit whenever a commercially acceptable product is called for."

Noooope nope nope.

_________________
<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Easiest thing to do is get a Pertronix and be done with points and messing with other elec ign altogether. I have heard later pertronix quality is sketchy, but I have had one for 10 yrs and it was suuuper easy to put in a points dist. It has been reliable and good enough for 13 sec 1/4 miles in my racecar.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Ditto that.

Tournament forced us to pull the points from the animation slant in our float nine years ago. They wanted electronics but settled for my choice of Pertronix. Haven't had problem number one with it.

_________________
Sex, drags, and rock & roll.
Dick, 225% crazy.
Hobby (cars, that is) Photos link

Which Pertronix system do you run? I've seen a few different combos, some with their FlameThrower coil and some without. I looked into it and the original Ignitor system looks interesting. I don't really want to go Ignitor II or III mostly because I'm (perhaps overly stubbornly) trying to avoid computerised "smart" systems. I'm not against trying the Ignitor though. Do they work better with their own coil, or do stock coils run well with stock systems?
Also doing a search on this board I saw debate between using stock coil with a ballast resistor but other people saying it wasn't necessary if you switched coil. Does that vary with system?

_________________
<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

I believe I have the ignitor II, which should be a very simple circuit. I might have ignitor I, but don't remember. You can use a stock coil and it will work perfectly fine. I ran a stock coil on my racecar and saw no difference when I switched to the MSD Blaster II. Save your $$ and keep your stock coil and ballast.

Best,

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Ignitor I with 3 ohm coil and no ballast resistor.

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Any particular 3 ohm coil?

_________________
<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

the pertronix coil

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Help! Help! I'm being repressed! (and now back to your regularly scheduled programming, and time for the penguin on top of your television to explode)

Seriously, I did a HEI conversion with help from you and everybody here on the board and it was ridiculously simple and inexpensive. Throw out your old distributor - chances are the shaft has so much slop in it the timing is all over the place. Buy a new electronic distributor for super cheap on the bay of ease (ebay) and drop it in place. Get a new coil and the module and a few simple connectors available at NAPA, and the proper coil to distributor wire and you are done. No ballast resistor or such and there's actually fewer and shorter wires if the install is thought out.

_________________
Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

Don't forget on a 1967, she will also want to change out to an electronic voltage regulator as the mechanical buzz box is not really great...and the solid state replacements for these are kit and miss...

That being said too...points are very tolerant to timing chain stretch...if she hasn't replaced that and it's a little sloppy, she can get intermittent stalls and no starts until replaced....

So keep that in mind as sometimes the cure fixes one thing, and lets a plethora of other underlying issues surface....

(And never toss the points distributor...put it in a plastic bag with dessicant in a box in the trunk...so if you need to limp someplace because the ignition failed, the state cop hit you with the EM gun, or the big one happens...at least you still have a quick and cheap option at hand).