Ignition: Prestolite or Autolite?

[corum]

I am confused about the distributor on my 62 Hawk. Are Prestolite and Autolite the same company? Seems I read somewhere that the companies merged in 1963. I need a vacuum advance unit for what my manual calls an Autolite IBP-4108 distributor. Can anyone please clarify this for me? Thanks so much for your help.

[Gunslinger]

I don't know about back then but that's the first I've heard of the two companies possibly having merged. I know Autolite was a division of Ford for years before being spun off and Motorcraft taking its place within the Ford universe.

Prestolite is still around as is Autolite.

[sweetolbob]

I am confused about the distributor on my 62 Hawk. Are Prestolite and Autolite the same company? Seems I read somewhere that the companies merged in 1963. I need a vacuum advance unit for what my manual calls an Autolite IBP-4108 distributor. Can anyone please clarify this for me? Thanks so much for your help.

[Milaca]

More info from Wikipedia:
In 1961, seeking to enter the profitable aftermarket auto parts business, the Ford Motor Company acquired the Autolite tradename, an Ohio spark plug factory, a Michigan battery facility, limited distribution rights, and the services of several employees.[2] Autolite products became standard original factory equipment in Ford vehicles. A federal antitrust lawsuit was filed against Ford, which dragged on through the remainder of the 1960s, and Ford was forced to sell its Autolite-related assets to the Bendix Corporation by 1973.

In 1963, the portion of the Autolite company which was not acquired by Ford merged with the Merganthaler Linotype Company and the 'Eltra Corporation was formed. Former Autolite motor phase of the company became the Prestolite Motor and Ignition Company, later Prestolite Electric. In 1973, the Bendix Corporation had purchased both Fram and Autolite. In 1980, The Eltra Corporation is acquired by the Allied Signal Corporation which became Honeywell in 1999. In 2011, Honeywell sold its automotive consumer products group to the Rank Group, which set up FRAM Group, LLC and several other companies to take over the operations and the transfer of ownership of the acquired trademarks.

[njonkman]

We had an Autolite plant in Sarnia, Ontario, where I grew up. Probably around 1958-9 our auto mechanics class at our high school went for a tour of that plant including myself. They showed us how spark plugs were made as well as generators, starters, regulators etc. I still have a couple of half made spark plugs in different stages around here somewhere which they let us take home. A few years later when they had become Prestolite they were making war material for the US army including bombs if I remember right. I had a customer that had some clout there and tried to get hired on but did not succeed. I wanted to get into machining there. I believe this was probably war material for the Vietnam conflict. Some time later the plant shut down and sat vacant for a long time. Now it is converted to all kinds of uses from warehousing to medical offices. We still call it the old Prestolite building complex.
Nick

[tbirdtbird]

i've been told that Prestolite was a Canadian version of Autolite