Originally Posted by
Luva65wagon
It's a tough debate. A lot comes down to cost to miles driven. Our cars don't usually see a lot of miles, so if you think of a set of points lasting 10 years when a car sees 500 miles a year, if you're luck, a $80 Pertronix kit may seem a waste of money if you are of the mind that it offers nothing more than zero maintenance. I think it probably offers that and some level of performance improvement and with that some potential fuel savings. But I have no empirical evidence - only anecdotal. The good news is that of the 3 units in the past 20 years (or whatever it is) I've had, all of them were sent back to Pertronix and replaced at no charge. No complaint there.
I will say one other thing. On the black F100 I sold to Steve, I could not get the Pertronix to run, at all. It perplexed even the tech's at Pertronix. I ended up converting it to Duraspark II setup with a GM ignitor. Which is also what I run on the Ranchero, the wagon, and my 66 F100. Pretty easy swap. I debated using Pertronix on these, but because I needed new distributors I opted for DSII units, which happened to be cheaper and new, rather than more costly and rebuilt. The GM ignitor is only about $15 and is available everywhere.