The "upper rotor shaft" of the old style distributor can be modified by machining off the cam and turning a proper height seat for the Duraspark reluctor. Like the one in this picture. Send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a PDF print that has all of the dimensions.

It has also had its slots reduced in length to limit the total mechanical advance from the centrifugal mechanism.

With the point cam removed - use the newer base plate swivel, stator and dog leg vacuum can out of the later distributor. It all will fit.

There are later model editions of the Y distributor that utilize the 70's mechanical advance system. They will allow swapping out the upper rotor shaft to the "reluctor" version (that you have) directly. I modified my older version because I didn't have one of the newer Y types to work with.

I got your PM but for some reason I can't get one to go back to you.

To answer your question, I think its 6 of one and half dozen of the other. Whichever distributor you use, the results will be similar. I just used the older style because that's what I had and I couldn't seem to put my hands on the later version. Holun went to Autozone or one of those guys the next day and got the "right" newer dizzy on the first try. I know of one guy that went and got a remaned Y dizzy and a remaned Duraspark II for a 351 (on a company discount deal) and screwed one together with clean parts one evening! Its just whatever you have the patience for.

At least one other fellow told me he thought the early advance set-up with the bushed "kidney" shaped fly weights was superior to the later version - this could be.

Is there something I should know about the Duraspark, i have the Petronix Ignitor in my dizzy and it works great. Easy to install too.  Is there some advantage to going the Duraspark way?

I agree with Ted,  Steve you do an beautiful job with the diagrams and the explanations.

Tim - the troubles with the Pertronix - I believe are mostly people troubles. Like leaving the power on and cooking one a bit while troubleshooting, that sort of thing. Some guys have tried to get them to switch too heavy a current - not enough combined OHMS in the coil and resistor to protect the transistor. Under-voltage feed to the controller. The directions you get with them are reasonably clear, but we all stumble once in a while.

I have seen several mystery problems that finally went back to having a crummy ground between the swivel plate and the distributor base. Which, when coupled with a less than perfect ground between the base and block - makes for chronic under-voltage at the controller (or a set-up that stutters when the vacuum advance operates). Running a ground wire to the pivot plate clears all that up - and it needs to be in their directions.

The little black controller can still die for all the old reasons electronics finally die - mostly heat and age - and unexpectedly leave you at the side of the road....... 'till you break out the spare points and re-invent the wiring at the side of the road. And then buy and install a new controller.

The trouble with the Ford sytem - is the same stuff. Power left on and cooked it, too small a resistance in the coil and ballast, crummy ground.....its all there.....

But- the Ford reluctor and stator set-up in the dizzy just about never ever die. The one in my Bird did 165,000 miles in an F-150 before I "liberated" it. So if the seperate Duraspark II controller conks out - you pull out your spare controller, plug it in and drive home. The controllers also have the handy dandy 6° auto-retard feature that you connect to the starter soleniod. Bumps my 12° initial down to 6° while it cranks. Parts are at every salvage yard, chain store and on the internet - and on Sunday afternoon too.

I have four of the Petronix running right now, the first I installed over 12 years ago, and have had no problems. I do however carry in each car the old points, cond. and other parts for a roadside conversion if nessisary.  I think in the future I may convert an extra dizzy to the Duraspark just for S and G  to see how it works.  Always fun to try something new.

Thanks guys!

Waiting in the wings is this:

The HEI controller (really cheap too - carry two spares in the ashtray) controls heating by varying the dwell (15° at idle to 30°+ at revs) so you don't use a ballast resistor. I've tested it (briefly) on my outfit by just switching the connections and jumpering out the ballast resistor and it seems to work just fine. 

So far no big deals to report - but no trips down the track either....What was the high perf 289 plug? It would seem like a good choice for higher compression / higher rev use.  

Doesn't really matter which engine either - I've made up a system with 351-C guts - and another with 429 guts. You are going to use the Y distributor body for a base anyway.  

If the cap is held on with those two clips, it's a good donor distributor - I think the newer ones are held on with screws.  Also look for the triangular shape of the narrow part of distributor body - it can kinda be made out in the drawing Steve posted.  Once you've spotted one they'll be easy to... spot - sorry, too tired to think of another word right now.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=CRN%2D750%2D1700&N=700+400078+305229+115&autoview=sku

That last picture shows a well burnt module caused by a false wiring to the coil. Only two wires and LordMrFord managed to hook them wrong...

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?Ntt=msd+&N=700+400122+4294841558+115+4294847538&Ntk=KeywordSearch

So with this patch cord and MSD box hooked to a Duraspark moifided Y dizzy you are ready to go?  No other "black boxes" right.

http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/bangbang.html

Maybe some day all those will be at use .

LordMrFord is working on to get his engine running with crank triggering system and direct ignition. It's close but... Lots of problems

MSD has used the Ford trigger in their units - and I assume for reliability issues - the parts aren't particulary cheap to produce. The reason for its reliability is that it doesn't use external power to produce a signal - only a complete circuit. You can clamp the finished dizzy in a vice, spin it with a drill motor and the two detector coil leads (joined) will show the AC signal needed to run all sorts of ignition (red or black) boxes. This is not a "Hall effect" arrangement. It spins the 8 pole reluctor in a permanent magnet field and generates an independent sine wave signal. The digital control devices use the zero voltage crossing point of the AC as a binary "off" and start continuously counting.  

 If you don't want fuel injection - don't have a red box - just want a cheap, modern "no points" electronically fired coil ignition - it will work. If you want the high zoot stuff - it will run that too. Your choice. 

          another question, in your earlier post#21157 you mentioned

          someone buying two dizzy's and swaping the parts in one nite.

                  What about the rotor shaft? I got your deal on machining

         the point cam off etc, but is there a dizzy out there that doesn't

         require that? (upper shaft a strait swap-out without machine work?)

                   I can't see the forrest for the trees I guess!!!!!!

                                  Thanks Bill

I have the Pertronix triggering an MSD box in the T bird and an Accel running the coil in the truck.  Both were easy to install in the stock distributors without any glitches so why ask for trouble with the Duraspark stuff?  

So far as I can determine from my own experience - and reading the internet message boards - the Ford control box isn't any more or less reliable than the Pertronix outfit - just way cheaper and much easier to get a spare and change out. The trigger is about bullet proof and I think that's the part Bill wants anyway. 

       I have never had a Dura spark unit die yet in 30 years!. Maybe they don't like you, or Ferrys, or Maryland! Seriously, have one in the red car (with an MSD) been flawless so far.

      My '79 Fairmont was also the Euro thing, but with the firebreathing 85 horsepower 200 inch six. What a rocket that was!!

I have a little collection of y-block distributors, so I started working on the conversion today. I destroyed my Duraspark donor's electronic pickup, but I figured a few things out.

I had a 351M Duraspark distributor and a mystery V8 distributor, probably a 302. The mystery distributor had its vacuum advance on the other side. I tried to remove the electronic pickup on the 351M distributor and broke its magnet. But I was able to drill out the one rivet that was holding the pickup on the 302 distributor. I think I can mount the 302 pickup on the y-block vacuum advance plate by drilling two holes. The 351 stator, upside down, slips over the original y-block distributor's points cam.

I don't have a running y-block engine to test this on, but I think it will work.

First photo shows two y-block distributors, recently purchased from the FLAPS. The round shafted body with the two slots is a C4?? (obscured) and the triangular shafted body is a C5JF.

The photo below shows the 302 pickup

Next photo shows the parts in place (my thumb is holding the pickup down).

The stator will have to be pinned in place. I'll probably use a dremel to cut a slot in the points cam shaft and use a roll pin or similar to pin it in position.

if ......you have the upper rotor shaft modified by removing the cam and machining a seat to press the reluctor on there. The unit just slips over the bare upper rotor shaft. I usually have to cut and file an exit slot for the stator pigtail.

Does this help? Hope so.....removing the stator and fitting it to a point style plate didn't occur to me - and I'm not sure how I would go about doing it.

On my systems - I have run an additional ground wire down to the block to seal the deal. You do want the block to be the grounding point - as that will insure you have the maximum voltage available to the system. The body of the vehicle is not absolutely certain to have the same ground as the engine.  

Finding a '57 tach drive unit - that could be switched over to the Ford electronics - would likely take a ton of money. The alternative is to find a Mallory outfit (with tach drive) or do what others are doing - which is use the '57 up distributor and modify an electronic tach to fill the hole in the dash.