Distributor And Coil Advice Needed

[cjhank]

I am in need of an exrtra opinion or however many I get is good. I am looking at upgrading my old original distributor and coil on my 1976 CJ7 with an AMC 304 . I have picked out a new pertronix flame thrower distributor with a flame thrower 2 coil. I was pointed at this style and brand by my dad and he's a hot rodder who knows his stuff but he's not as familiar with the AMC v8. I appreciate the advice and opinion.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d160700

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Try this: http://www.junkyardgenius.com/toc.html Follow the ignition upgrade links.

 

[hdgapeach]

Upgraded my '76 AMC 304 with the Ford Dura-Spark II ignition with the TFI coil. Haven't regretted it a bit! Got everything except the dizzy cap & rotor button out of the pick & pull yard for a grand total of $40.00!!

Best upgrade I've done so far to the ol' CJ5 . Second best was Jimbos headlight harness upgrade.

 

[Hedgehog]

Just keep in mind that the AMC V8 is VERY picky about mixing and matching distributor gears. FAR more than other engine designs. Two options are to change both gears with a matched set or reuse the original factory gear on your replacement distributor.

I'm a HEI guy - coil, cap, brains and advance in one impressive looking package. A nice clean one wire install rather than a bit of a rats nest .... no that would be an overly dramatic description of the Ford conversion. For that conversion look at the Team Rush conversion threads.

 

[Torxhead]

I am in need of an exrtra opinion or however many I get is good. I am looking at upgrading my old original distributor and coil on my 1976 Cj7 with an AMC 304. I have picked out a new pertronix flame thrower distributor with a flame thrower 2 coil. I was pointed at this style and brand by my dad and he's a hot rodder who knows his stuff but he's not as familiar with the AMC v8. I appreciate the advice and opinion.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d160700

From what I have seen and read most guys with the pre '78s go the the Hei type for simplicity. The DUI brand seems to be the best and is adjustable. Staying away from Chinese type with the harder distributor gear that will tear up the gear on the cam.

 

[Dan77CJ7]

I am in need of an exrtra opinion or however many I get is good. I am looking at upgrading my old original distributor and coil on my 1976 Cj7 with an AMC 304. I have picked out a new pertronix flame thrower distributor with a flame thrower 2 coil. I was pointed at this style and brand by my dad and he's a hot rodder who knows his stuff but he's not as familiar with the AMC v8. I appreciate the advice and opinion.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d160700

I started a thread called "DUI termination" theres is some good stuff from TEAMRUSH that might make things more clear. IMO read up on TEAMRUSH's posts on this subject you will learn a thing or 5! Id give some links but i dont know how....sorry, but you can click on his name in my thread.

 

[007]

Some TeamRush upgrade is without a doubt the way to go. You're using a reman CJ distributor with a Motorcraft top-end so you have no cam-gear worries. He knows his stuff on this - believe me.

 

[Hedgehog]

How did the HEI conversion, especially the DUI conversion become a problem? Just use your old dist. gear and you are good to go.

 

[Dan77CJ7]

How did the HEI conversion, especially the DUI conversion become a problem? Just use your old dist. gear and you are good to go.

its not a problem at all, plain and simple yes. It just doesn't hit like the motor craft . I like mine don't get me wrong. with the motor craft you can "fine tune" more. yes the DUI can be tuned but with limitation. I like the GM HEI with remote coil set up. but for my money Go Motor craft! LOL I got a DUI ill sell ya lol

 

[007]

X2 Dan. That's what I have personally.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hedgehog]

Well, if we are talking drag racing, but this is a jeep we are talking about. I guess I'm not really into cutting edge performance.

Are there dyno numbers to prove the "seat of your pants" impression.

 

[Woolyworm]

Team rush all the way. Night and day difference. I've got a 72 AMC 304 with team rush, stock ignition control, and MC2100. Runs great in all conditions. I wheel in the Maine woods. Flat, off camber, steep, hot, cold, high, low, whatever.


Wooly

 

[Dan77CJ7]

Well, if we are talking drag racing, but this is a jeep we are talking about. I guess I'm not really into cutting edge performance.

Are there dyno numbers to prove the "seat of your pants" impression.

Are there dyno numbers to prove the "seat of your pants" impression.[/QUOTE]

You know theres no dyno..why even ask.... dude when your Cj is running good then you change something and it runs better.. i know you've felt this feeling... thats the seat of the pants impression. those headers/twinstick you run are "cutting edge" compared to the stock manifolds/linkage..... did you not feel the difference? both performance parts.. when you butter your toast do you go all the way to the edge or just the middle?

Im not trying to start a fight just trying to make a small point

 

[Lumpy Grits]

"Seat of the Pants" IS my DYNO-

LG

 

[TeamRush]

I am in need of an exrtra opinion or however many I get is good. I am looking at upgrading my old original distributor and coil on my 1976 Cj7 with an AMC 304. I have picked out a new pertronix flame thrower distributor with a flame thrower 2 coil. I was pointed at this style and brand by my dad and he's a hot rodder who knows his stuff but he's not as familiar with the AMC v8. I appreciate the advice and opinion.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d160700

I don't know if the OP got his distributor or not...

I can just relay a few (40 years worth) of experience in this field and see what sticks...

This is what USUALLY happens,
A guy gets an old Jeep, 30 or 40 years old,
The factory CHOKED when it came to ignitions (AMC, A Mixture of Cars),
AMC purchased what ever ignition was available, they never built their own systems.

The guys that have it the worst are '75 to '77, the Prestolite electronic ignition.
No upgrades, no way to 'Fix' the issues, you simply replace the Prestolite with something that actually works...

'78 to '86 CJs, '78 to '90 FSJs had a pretty darn good distributor.
The 'Ford' Motocraft distributor is the best kept secret in racing/off roading, ect.

AMC/Jeep CHOKED on the distributor cap, rotor, plug wires.
The entire high voltage side of that ignition is .

While 'Ford' opted for a tall rotor, wide cap to control the INCREASED spark energy an electronic system made,
AMC/Jeep opted to use the short rotor, small cap used on much weaker breaker point systems.
(Ford had stockpiles, sold them CHEAP to AMC)

----------------

Where we benefit is by changing to the 'Ford' style taller rotor,
(Gets spark energy up and away from the 'Grounds' inside the cap, shaft, housing, ect.)

And we benefit from using the wider 'Ford' cap which spaces terminals farther apart, cutting down on 'Cross Fire', firing the wrong terminals or two terminals at once when they are too close together...

----------------

Now...
Since Ford/Motorcraft made the Taller/Larger caps for their distributors,
And since Ford/Motorcraft made the distributor used from '78 to '86,
The better components will DROP RIGHT ON YOUR FACTORY DISTRIBUTOR.

You get better high voltage spark energy control,
You get MUCH better plug wire terminals,
And with a good set of spark plug wires, you actually get the spark energy to the SPARK PLUG GAP for a change!

IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR IGNITION IS LETTING YOU DOWN,

The FIRST thing you should do is a full 'Tune Up'.
Cap, Rotor, Wires, New Plugs With Correct Gap, ect.

Now, if you are buying a cap, rotor, plug wires,
WHY NOT BUY THE 'FORD' PARTS & UPGRADE?

It's the same money, just an upgraded FACTORY part designed to fit right on the distributor you are already using...

A true upgrade in every sense of the word,
Better parts, better control of spark energy, same money as you would spend on the parts AMC Choked on,
Minimal tools required, and about anyone that can run the firing order to put spark plug wires on can do it in an hour or so...

 

[TeamRush]

NOW... FOR THE PRESTOLITE GUYS, '75 to '77...

You guys have a good deal more work...

Since the Prestolite Distributor & Module were both failure prone,
And since there is no 'Off The Shelf' upgrade for them,
Your best action would be to scrap module and distributor.

Some guys will tell you to use an HEI clone.
Delco Remy never made an HEI distributor for an AMC V-8,
And the 'Clones' solid on E-bay and other places are trying to put one together without knowing what they are doing.

There are a bunch of issues with the HEI Clones,
From gears, to shafts, to housing sizes, ect.
And most of the parts start out in 'China' in the first place,
Assembled or scabbed together here, and sold as running units.

The ONLY TOTALLY SAFE UNIT for an AMC V-8 is one made specifically for an AMC V-8,

That limits you to a Delco Remy Breaker point distributor, which is easy to convert to electronic trigger,

And the Prestolite distributor, which most of us can agree is a series of failure points waiting to happen, is under powered, and generally doesn't perform well for the maintenance it takes,

And the AMC/Motorcraft distributor used in AMC V-8 engines until '90,
Which is a good base distributor,
Is easy to upgrade for cap, rotor, ect.
And will trigger about any factory or aftermarket module...

A Jeep/Motorcraft distributor on the re-manufactured market runs about $100 or less,
Drops into the engine without any issues since it's specifically designed to do so,
The base distributor has VERY FEW issues in the way it works or the materials it's made from,
And it comes with a SAFE ADVANCE CURVE for your engine.

The Jeep/Motorcraft distributor paired with a $20 HEI 'Replacement' module sets you up for a much more powerful ignition coil,
Called an E-core coil, which grow on trees, virtually all modern single coil vehicles use an E-core)
This combination makes for a cheap, reliable, VERY POWERFUL single coil ignition system when you need to convert...

You CAN pay less for junk,
You CAN pay $300 to $500 for junk or mismatched parts, something that could very well be dangerous for your engine,
But this particular combination makes for a good balance between reliability, power and cost...

 

[Nbruno]

Team rush, can you specify part numbers to upgrade the distributor, cap, and coil for a 79 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l CJ5

 

[poppatello]

What about us 4 bangers running stock Ford distributors? How van we upgrade them???

 

[Hedgehog]

Dan77CJ7 - In point of fact there might have been dyno numbers generated by someone to show the difference between various distributors.

"Seat of the pants" fell can be extremely deceiving. For instance H-D drivers will put shorty mufflers on their bikes and swear all day that their bikes are faster/better. But when tested on a dyno they find that the bike is producing only a portion of the HP they were before changing mufflers. Biker magazines are full of such examples. Seat of the pants testing can be deceiving is all I'm saying.

I put the DUI version of the HEI ignition on my jeep because I needed a new ignition system and like the clean looks of the DUI system. With all this discussion of one system being better than the other I don't see where anybody (maybe somebody did) ran one, then changed it out for the other. I like my DUI dist. It's neat and clean, all of it makes sense to me, big cap, built in coil for a direct shot of electricity to the plug wires, solid well built easy to find module, to keep it safe I'm running the factory gear. Only one small problem with interference with the power steering pump, but no big deal. Simply stated, I won't be changing it out for something else any time soon.

That's not saying that there is anything wrong with the Team Rush system. I'm sure everything they are saying is true. Sure there is a lot of wiring and extra boxes here and there which is something that doesn't impress me much, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is a far better system than the one AMC installed, but the DUI HEI system is also a far better system. By the way, please don't separate the DUI out and include ALL the cheap distributors in what I'm writing, I know NOTHING about the cheaper systems except for what has been written here in this forum. Even here, after changing the gear out, some have had good luck with the cheap E-bay systems. Don't be fooled, I bet quite a few team rush parts passed through China as well.

 

[cjhank]

NOW... FOR THE PRESTOLITE GUYS, '75 to '77...

You guys have a good deal more work...

Since the Prestolite Distributor & Module were both failure prone,
And since there is no 'Off The Shelf' upgrade for them,
Your best action would be to scrap module and distributor.

Some guys will tell you to use an HEI clone.
Delco Remy never made an HEI distributor for an AMC V-8,
And the 'Clones' solid on E-bay and other places are trying to put one together without knowing what they are doing.

There are a bunch of issues with the HEI Clones,
From gears, to shafts, to housing sizes, ect.
And most of the parts start out in 'China' in the first place,
Assembled or scabbed together here, and sold as running units.

The ONLY TOTALLY SAFE UNIT for an AMC V-8 is one made specifically for an AMC V-8,

That limits you to a Delco Remy Breaker point distributor, which is easy to convert to electronic trigger,

And the Prestolite distributor, which most of us can agree is a series of failure points waiting to happen, is under powered, and generally doesn't perform well for the maintenance it takes,

And the AMC/Motorcraft distributor used in AMC V-8 engines until '90,
Which is a good base distributor,
Is easy to upgrade for cap, rotor, ect.
And will trigger about any factory or aftermarket module...

A Jeep/Motorcraft distributor on the re-manufactured market runs about $100 or less,
Drops into the engine without any issues since it's specifically designed to do so,
The base distributor has VERY FEW issues in the way it works or the materials it's made from,
And it comes with a SAFE ADVANCE CURVE for your engine.

The Jeep/Motorcraft distributor paired with a $20 HEI 'Replacement' module sets you up for a much more powerful ignition coil,
Called an E-core coil, which grow on trees, virtually all modern single coil vehicles use an E-core)
This combination makes for a cheap, reliable, VERY POWERFUL single coil ignition system when you need to convert...

You CAN pay less for junk,
You CAN pay $300 to $500 for junk or mismatched parts, something that could very well be dangerous for your engine,
But this particular combination makes for a good balance between reliability, power and cost...

So what I'm picking up from Team Rush is that I probably have the prestolite setup in my 76 and need to figure out the best upgrade which if I understand your post is a jeep/motorcraft distributor paired with a hei replacement.

Where is the best place to buy these parts online?

Thank you everyone for the helpful advice. Sorry for the late reply I have been busy at work.