What's the deal with the Dura-Spark ignition?  I bought new in '79 a V8 Fairmont with the Eurosport interior which meant the Mustang Dashboard with a Tach.  The whole car was troublesome and the Duraspark let me down often, notably one time trying to get the car off the Cape May - Delaware Ferry, try being responsible for delaying a seagoing ferry for stress!!  Maybe the Hall Effect parts in the distributor were OK but the electronics in the box were CRAP. 

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?  

Doug T

The Highlands, Louisville, Ky.

Bill - There are some later edition Y distributors that will accept the upper rotor shaft, reluctor and stator straight out of your donor Duraspark distributor. I just couldn't find one when I wanted it - wasn't too prone to buying one at the parts house and hoping to get the right match, etc. I had a Y distirbutor just like the one in your other picture - and not the new style unit. So I just figured out how to machine my early style rotor shaft and went from there.

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. 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Doug,

       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!!

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

I have to say my Dura Spark has been flawless for many years.

-Gary Burnette-

Well, to throw another fix in the mix, I've got a Mallory electronic set up in mine. I got a '59 Distributor and put the Mallory stuff in it with a Mallory coil (to get rid of the resistor) and things are sweet. I just went with Mallory because that's what I had back in the day. It was so simple it was ridiculous. I think I set the plugs at .035 and could have probably did .040 or .045.

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL

Steve, outstanding work, as usual.

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.

Best regards,



Paul Menten

Meridian, Idaho

When I build these things - I just adapt the whole Duraspark "point plate", stator and vacuum advance pivot to the top of the Y distributor.  All of the stuff on the upper end of this diagram will fit right onto the top of the old dizzy (it's the right diameter and the screw holes line up), if.......

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.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

More on grounding of the duraspark units and those obscure gremlins that can haunt you. I have an 82 F600 ramp truck and it started dyeing over the period of a week, kept cutting out breifly which acted as though there was water in the gas until it died completely. I then noticed no spark, changed reluctor, box etc with spares I had and it acted the same. we went through the system and lo and behold had a meter near the distributor and found that the distributor was searching for ground. Evidently the distributor lost its ground through the block. Connected a wire from distributor to battery ground and the thing has never skipped a beat since.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Billy points out a problem that was addressed in the Ford service literature of the day......The ground for the Duraspark II control box (a black wire - out of the six exiting the grommet).....goes all the way back to the distributor and is attached to the distributor body with a brass lug right where the pigtail is going through the wall of the housing. This is "supposed" to make the engine block the ground for the system.

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.  

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I am probably going to make myself look stupid, but that has happened before.  Can you do the duraspark conversion to a 55 Tbird tach drive distributor?  I am switching to 57 intake and carb and know I need to change the distributor.