Hello all, I was wondering if anyone ever had any experience or had done a changeover on their pickup from a point/condensor setup to an electronic ignition? I have a friend that was considering doing this to his pickup. He was asking me about it and where would be the best place to get one. I really did not know so I thought I would turn to the experts here on the list. I have heard some people talk about doing this by removing the distributor shaft and all from a 1974 and later model Chevrolet or GMC pickup with a V-8 and then replacing the shaft with the one that is currently in the pickup. Is this the only way or the best way to do this? His pickup is a 66 model and has a factory small block 283 V-8 in it currently. I know from my pickup (which also has a 283 V-8 in it) there is not a lot of room to work with back there against the firewall and air cleaner (trust me, I know!), so is space going to be a problem? Would you have to do any modification to the firewall in any way? I am assuming that when you do this changeover, you will have to change your coil, spark plug wires and your plugs to a higher heat range plug, correct? You will obviously have to change the distributor cap. Is there any danger in doing this to your pickup, as far as the wiring goes? I know a lot of people do this to their pickup to get away from the point and condenser problems that we all know about and do not want to face. What are the other benefits of this, such as increased gas mileage possibly, more power? What are the options for this and what is involved in each as well as what are the approx. cost factors of each? Thanks again and as always I look forward to hearing from you all soon. Any information on this will be of great help. I will pass all of the info along to him. -- Mark A. Bailey mabailey@multipro.com Are you a vintage Chevrolet/GMC pickup collector or enthusiast? Join our discussion groups today for the era of your choosing at... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pre47chevygmcpickups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4755chevygmcpickups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/5559chevygmcpickups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/6066chevygmcpickups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/6772chevygmcpickups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7387chevygmcpickups
Hey Mark. I replaced mine with a HEI out of a mid 70's Chevy. Don't know if I was just lucky or if any of the Chevy/GMC truck HEI's will work. Just run the power hot that went to the coil to the hot connection on the HEI. There's two connector slots, one for power and one for the tach hookup. However, mine was on a 4x4 and the V-8 uses the rear motor mounts so I had to modify the firewall for the larger unit to fit. (Don't worry folks, I didn't use a hammer. I made a nice little recessed area that almost looks factory.) The recess didn't interfere with any interior components, but I don't have AC. Not sure if that would cause you problems. Good luck and I don't regret putting the HEI on mine. Another note, the vacuum advance canister can be a few different flavors with each having a different amount of advance.
There's a number of companies out there offering electronic ignitions for the pre-75 distributor. They all work well. I'm still using one that I bought from Montgomery Ward almost 20 years ago. Most of them eliminate the ballast resistor (if you have one), recommend you increase the plug gap to about 45 thousandths, and use 8 MM wires. My system uses the original type coil and the same spark plugs. The hookup is pretty straightforward. I've moved this system several times from car to car (or truck to truck). If you don't have the room for the HEI, that's what I would do. If you do have room near the firewall, then the HEI works well also, but I wouldn't go banging on the firewall just to make it fit...
I'm running a 70's era 305 with GM factory HEI distributor. The fire wall clearance is tight but does fit. An outfit called Petronix (I thik) makes a conversion kit to eliminate the points from a standard coil fired distributor. I'm sold on the HEI myself.
Your HEI will work a lot better if it receives battery voltage [12 volts]. The factory hot wire to the points coil contains a ballast resistor to drop the voltage. It is a piece of non-copper resistor wire in the wiring loom. Check the voltage to the HEI. If it is less than the voltage available at the battery [about 12.6-14.0], you need to run a copper wire direct from the ignition switch. Make sure it is hot with the switch in the "ON" and "CRANK" positions.
