Breakerless Ignition Installation on Champion 6

[JohnM15]

I installed the Pertronix breakerless ignition system on my M15A-20. Here is my blog page to illustrate:

http://studem15a-20.blogspot.com/p/i...on-system.html

[Bullet]

Thanks for posting the pictures. It looks like the Pertronix unit you installed needed to be installed into your old distributor. Is that the difference between buying the Pertronix unit from Pertronix vs one of the Studebaker vendors where the unit, I assume is alreay installed in the distributor and then it is a simple pull and replace?

Mark

[JohnM15]

Geez, I didn't know there was a "pull & replace" distributor available.

[StudeRich]

No Mark, we (Stude. Vendors) sell the Pertronix Ignition System in the box, since it is easier than replacing points to change, you do the Installation into your Dist. But, if you have a Prestolite V-8 Dist. it is not recommended without a Dist. Rebuild first, and there are no longer any Pertronix kits for the single point version of the Prestolite.

Dave Thibault is one of the few that sell NEW Distributors with some other electronic Ignition system he created, already installed.
The price difference is understandably HUGE! Apples and Oranges different!

[dong]

The distributor in my 51 Champion was at the end of its useful life. I bought a rebuilt distributor with the Pertronix unit from Bill Cathcart and it was pull and replace. Although I have heard bad things about the Pertronix units, so far I have had no problems in just over 1,000 miles.

[mbstude]

Dave Thibault is one of the few that sell NEW Distributors with some other electronic Ignition system he created, already installed.
The price difference is understandably HUGE! Apples and Oranges different!

T-Bow's is a Mallory Unilite. My uncle put one of those in his '56 Hawk. The old 289 really woke up. But like you say, apples to oranges when talking about Pertronix.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Nicely done!
Thank you for sharing!
Jeff

[Bullet]

Agreed! Thanks for asking the question and all the answers.


Mark

[PlainBrownR2]

I have had one in the Lark for eight years and the '50 2r5 had one for seven years now, with the added Flamethrower coils added, and never had any problems. In this instance, the 2r5 has a 170 six cylinder with the Autolite as well. With the Autolites, if an individual wants to use the kit, they will need to pop the riveted section off as demonstrated, which means they will lose the neat adjusting screw ability they had on those distributors, on the advance plate. Therefore, if you have the desire to go back for any reason, the advance plate will need to be replaced to get the points back on the distributor. However, due to the length of time, and the satisfactory performance, I have had those kits on both vehicles, if it goes bust I'll just go get another kit, lol.

Yeah, in the case of the Mallory that's going to be the next step up for me. Those distributors make the Pertronix systems look like simple electronic Heathkit kits as they are a full fledged, modern distributor.