My son just purchased a 1985 Ford F-250 4X4. It has a 460 engine, 4 barrel Holley Carb, C-6 auto trans AND A POINT DISTRIBUTOR in it (yikes).

For reasons unknown, the previous owner had removed the electronic ignition and installed a old school point distributor set up. We did not notice this until we tried to do a tune up.

Can anyone tell me exactly what parts I need to pick up to return this ignition system back to what it should be (electronic ignition)? Also, are there any aftermarket kits available to do this or should I just go to the junk yard? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Zeus

 

Go to the parts store and get a new or rebuilt distributor. I recommend this, since one from the junkyard may be wore out.

Go to the junkyard and get a module and the wiring from the module to the dist from any car or truck, Ford or Mercury/Lincoln from around the mid 70's to the mid 80's. Make sure the module has blue plastic around where the wires come out. I recommend getting a motorcraft module from the junkyard, since people have better luck with an original Ford module rather than a aftermarket one.

Hopefully the wiring and plug is still there to plug the module into the trucks harness(you will get the harness from the module to the dist from the junkyard). If it's not, snip the plug and a little bit of the wiring from the junkyard car, so you can splice the wiring in and use a plug to plug in the module like factory.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have a couple of more questions as I am not familiar with ford ignition systems. Where should the module be located on this truck or the potential donor vehicle? How many wires/pins should the harness have and where was it routed? I'm hoping maybe we'll get lucky and the previous owner left it intact.

 

A really easy alternative would be to get a Pertronix ignitor. They usually run less than $100 and are as easy to install as changing a set of points with only 1 extra wire to hook up. I have had them in 2 of my cars for years and never had a problem with either one. I thought I would throw that out there, would save you the trouble of looking for a bunch of other parts then wiring it all up.

 

I would also just convert to a Pertronix ignitor, it will replace the points and I have never had trouble with them on cars or boats.

 

The Pertronix is a pretty good setup, no doubt. But for a daily driver, I think the Motorcraft Duraspark ignition (stock for your truck) is hard to beat. That is the direction that Franklin2 is pointing you in.

The main advantage the Pertronix has is that you can use your current distributor, and it is a one-wire hookup. Much neater than the Duraspark. The disadvantage is that it can be hard to start on a hot engine, and if it fails, it may be difficult to find a quick replacement.

The Duraspark has more wires, and it has a few more parts. However, it is very reliable and Ford used it from about 1974 to 1989 on many models. Even AMC used the Motorcraft Duraspark ignition system. Parts are plentiful. If any part of it happens to fail, you can get replacement parts from ANY parts house in ANY part of the U.S.! It also has a spark retard function for quick starts, even on a hot engine.

 

Module on trucks mounts on driver side inner fender. Get one with BLUE grommet. The module has two connectors. The power connector mates with connecter #C321 on main harness with wire colors White/Light Blue an Red/Light Blue. The ignition connector mates with the ignition coil/tach/distributor harness connector #C326 which has Orange/Yellow, Pink/Light Blue, and Black/Light Green going to connector #C322 for the distributor. It also has a Black/Light Green to the tach and two Dark Green/Yellow (one to tach and one to tach terminal on the coil). If the coil is not original you will likely need the proper coil.

 

Thanks for all the info! The pertronix set up seems easy according the their website. I think I'll go back to the original configuration though. This is because the point distributor that's in the engine looks worn and in bad shape plusthis 460 runs a little on the warm side anyhow. I'll check my son's truck tonight and see how much if any of the original harness and parts were left intact. Then I'll have to wait for the weekend until I can drive to Phoenix (about 100 miles) and scrounge around in the junkyards. We dont have such luxuries in my little town :-)... What is the significance of the Blue Grommet?

 

The blue grommet module is the standard version. Modules with other color grommets are for high altitude, California version, etc. I think all the '83 thru '86 460's use the blue grommet version.

 

I've never had a problem with the pretronix in my capri, it's a DD and it always runs hot. It's impossible to drive during heavy traffic in the summer. I have to plan my route ahead of time to avoid traffic so it doesn't overheat. The other one is in my 67 mustang which only gets driven during the summer. If you are worried about it failing, keep an extra set of points in your glove box and it'll take you 5 minutes to fix. Thats just my opinion though, I like to keep things simple. If you want to redo the factory setup, more power to you. Good luck.