Gentlemen (and ladies?) - a note to clarify my previous post on Mallory
distributors.
I off-handedly dissed this product and in doing so apparently gored the sacred
oxen of a few of you.
There is nothing wrong with the Mallory, and I'm sure that it will give years
of reliable service. What is not true are the claims of the various vendors
that this unit is a 'high performance' part, thus encouraging people who don't
know any better to spend a fair bit of money and wonder later why their car
doesn't go any better than with a stock unit in good order. This is not
dissimilar to the advertising that encourages you to put a Weber on your stock
engine - the added intake roar makes you swear that it's more powerful, but
while you might gain a couple of bhp up in ranges you rarely use, the main
effect is a lightening of your wallet. For the most part, the Mallory units
are sold with a generic advance curve and without the drive dog on the shaft,
so you have extra expense to fit it for your MG, and you won't have the
factory advance curve, if that matters to you.
I also said that in performance use, there can be some problems. I have played
with these and with the stock units for some years, and have noted the
following problems with the Mallory:
-both sets of points don't always open (doesn't really matter as long as one
set does, but it does make it hard to read dwell sometimes)
- they don't work with some aftermarket tachometers
-the parts are not as easily obtainable (moral- plan ahead)
-they are slightly larger and can foul things that the stock one doesn't (not
much of a problem unless you run a TVR with HRG head and Webers, as my friend
and I do)
-in tight places you might want the choice of top or side entry caps
Other than that, they seem to work just fine. But then so will your Lucas unit
if you rebush it.
Finally, a note on some other ignition bits. The optically triggered units
that replace the points like the Mallory are pretty good. We don't however use
them in racing. You must understand that in racing, we try to eliminate
anything that _could_ cause a DNF, and once in a blue moon, you can get enough
oil fog at high engine speeds inside a distributor to cause an optical trigger
to malfunction or miss. For this reason, I use a magnetic triggered unit
(Pertronics Ignitor) to replace the points and condensor, both of which can
fail. The Ignitor itself can also fail, but at least there is one less thing,
and with the ignitor, you aren't subject to dwell variations if your
distributor bush happens to be worn.
Some people think they have to change from points to avoid point bounce, and
Mallory advertises that their unit also avoids that problem. As far as I'm
concerned, point bounce just isn't an issue, We run the Twincams to about
7800, and friends with 1071 Coopers have run 9500 rpm with the stronger spring
Lucas points without bounce problems.
We also use the MSD units which work well with the Ignitor. I have seen one of
these jump a spark from the inside terminal of a Lucas high output coil all
the way to the side terminal, over an inch! Unfortunately on one such occasion
my friend's fingers were in the way, and he still holds the local club
standing high jump record for both height and volume.
Hope I haven't been too long winded.
Bill Spohn
58 MGA
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