I keep an eye on the several cable shows that relate to cars (“Counting Cars” is one of my favorites). Most of them are short on technical details for restoring but they sure do put out some wonderful cars. Budgets are everything.
I happened to catch a repeat of the other of the shows as they were working on a 1950’s vintage Caddy. They were leaving it mostly stock except the engine and bagging the suspension to be able to lower it.
In the course of the starting up the engine they ran into a couple issues and one left the points and condenser fried. As they showed the fried wire, I wondered “Why keep them?” Seems to me if you are going to chop or lower and bag a classic, why not upgrade one of the weakest parts of the mechanical engine, the ignition system?
Weak Link
I learned from my Dad how to deal with points in particular (basically a condenser works or is gets replaces). He taught me how to gap them and to take a bit of emery cloth to “clean” them up (hey money was tight when I was a kid) and re-gap them. That’s really a lost art these days, but maybe for good reason.
This is commonly called a Feeler Gauge it is used to set the gap on spark plugs and points.
If you are unfamiliar with the gauge or the technique you can still find ‘how to’ videos and gaping specs on-line, that doesn’t negate the fact that these are a common weak link (they will need to be replaced) in the over all functioning of your car’s ability to burn fuel properly.
The 302
Shortly after I installed the rebuilt engine in my 1970 Mustang (re-manufactured long block) the new distributor took dive. I had done research on ignition systems and ran across Pertronix and decided to use one of their Flame Thrower modules and coil to replace everything under the distributor cap. It was a good decision, there is no change to the appears of the engine, everything tucks under the cap and it becomes pretty much trouble-free. I had no issues.
So tell me, would you keep the it old school under the distributor cap for your restoration or give it a chip?
Thanks for reading.
Tim
