okay well ill tell a little story about my little /6 so i have a 1983 dodge D150 1/2 TON 2WD. HAS A VIN CODE FOR A SLANT SIX 1BL. Well when i was shopping for a project i got more than what i bargained for i lifted the hood. and before my eyes i saw the most unusual beautiful engine i have ever seen something about it just screamed please buy me and keep me alive. so i bought it. not knowing a thing about a slant six even knowing thats what it was called . i just called it a straight six. so after running it for six months through the winter, in the spring i got a new gasket set for the 2bl carter BBD. so i spruced that up a bit and then i moved on to the ignition wich i know was ass back wards but what ever. so i looked on my cd rom service manual i bought for 80 bucks huge rip off cause i could buy a gently used paper back one on ebay for 20 or so. well it says this engine has a single pick up. distributor . oh boy was i in for a treat . i looked and guess what no pick up . but POINTS . OH ITS CHRISTMAS MORNING. !! so i start looking at the engine wiring harness and found the person before me ripped all the wiring out that even came close to resembling a electronic ignition. so now every time i go to the auto store i have to give a huge speel about my ignition system so i have to go all the way back to 1972 and buy the distributor from that year and everything that follows. so i get the distributor home and realize that when i open the air gap and set the points for 1972. as the cam hits the bumber and opens the points to its widest setting i put the rotor on and the dang thing does not even line up with the marks i made on the body of the distributor from the cap. so after really spending a week calling auto parts and mallory and accel. msd. every one telling me that i'm the dumb one . i say screw it. and put it in and try my best to dial it in and i did the entire process of finding TDC on compression stroke ! took the valve cover off. took number one spark plug out. and stuck what i would call a balled up piece of paper soaked in water. kind of like a spit ball. so i then got a switch and wired it all up so i could watch the timing marks and make sure i saw the spit wad launch. so i find top dead center on the compression stroke and slide the distributor in and was very methodical at finding each tooth and finding the best setting for the rotor to number one mark on body of distr. needless to say it sucked at running. had no power and after a couple weeks of running it around the block it never had full power. i take the cap off and start investigating.and find that the rotor was always firing on the heal of the metal tang and no mater how much i advanced or retarted it . the points would never open when the rotor was over number one mark. so i got fed up and grinded the male plastic key that is in the inside of the rotor . then i pulled my distr and proceeded to mess with it lining every thing up bye eye. so i think i got it. and got some putty metal ready and positioned everything so the points would be open as the rotor passed any mark on the body of the distr. needles to say. it worked like a champ. oh my god i felt like god himself. but needles to say after driving it for a couple of weeks now i pulled my cap and inspected every thing and wow wow. no crazy arcking on the toe or heal of the rotor metal tang . and buy the way i got a msd coil and 8.5 wires with a .8 ohm ballast and man this engine sings. i don't even have to get above 1500 rpm and i'm cruising at 30-35mph. . so i know every one here loves HEI FROM GM but i just wanted something quick and easy . i'm in a market now for a petronix ignition module cause i'm sick of my points. so if any one here has read this far ( sorry for the horrible grammar and run on sentences). please give me feed back if you have tried any of these easy fit under your cap ignition modules. from mallory or accel or petronix. .

Yep. That was a lot of talking with little punctuation.

Petronix is a good way to solve the points.

You might want to pop the distributor, and turn it upside down. there is another bolt on the bottom that allows you more adjustment of the distributor rotation.

I run a Mallory Unilite in my Valiant. It has no provision for vacuum advance. The caps and rotors are a bit pricey compared to over the counter parts at your FAPS though. The nice thing is having infinite adjustment of advance, and many spring combinations that are pre-mapped. I drive a Blaster II Coil off an MSD6A.
That won't be of much value unless it's a strip car.
Decreasing mechanical advance for a truck is a good idea though. With the weight, you don't want a lot of advance. See if you can find a 9R governor for the electronic ignition distributor. You may be able to request it from some rebuilders. Recurving the distributor can have many gains now that your running the 2bbl. I think DusterIdiot wrote up some of the possible springs that can be used in the OEM distributor.

Get an electronic distributor that's for something around 1974, and do yourself the favor of installing HEI. It's the way to go.

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Original post deleted.

ARMY dodge, welcome to the board. Please - Oh PLEASE use some sentences and paragraphs. It makes a post so much easier to read.
Many people - me being one - will not read a post of that length when it is written all bunched up.
Like reading the phone book - after the first 3 or 4 names , you lose interest.

regards,Rod

thanks for the comments. i will not write any thing that long again promise.
ill look into it. thanks guys.

The HEI conversion is the single best modification I have done. Period. Do it!

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

is there a thread on here that actually has every part and accessory that i need to make the HEI

It's in the FAQ. You can do a search on threads that cover the subject. Should be lots of information.

Read on my friend!

My dad was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in '51. Thanks for serving!

CJ
Go Navy!

I don't understand the dislike for Mopar electronic ignition. I've owned twenty or more, some with well over 100k miles, and except for one ballast resistor I never had a problem. They are relatively inexpensive and repair parts are available at any auto parts store.

yeah, i dont mind fort leonardwood. lots of good junk yards. .
i understand that the reason every one doesnt like the origional ignition system was cause of some kind of crazy emissions carb set up. i might be wrong though. i read it on here. once.

I was a car mechanic in the '70's and '80's. We replaced a lot more GM modules than we did ballast resistors. If it's eating resistors, the coil is dying.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

yeah, i dont mind fort leonardwood. lots of good junk yards. .
i understand that the reason every one doesnt like the origional ignition system was cause of some kind of crazy emissions carb set up. i might be wrong though. i read it on here. once.