Mallory ignition Yes or No
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 754
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From: Idaho
Mallory ignition Yes or No
I have a Mallory unilite with vacuum advance dizzy that came in a 460 I bought, and I was considering using it in my son's super cab it's a 400. Now my question is ford use's a resistor wire in the ignition system so I wouldn't have to run a ballast resistor correct? have heard that they are picky when it come's to voltage. Having never ran one before I'm not sure of all there quirks. Thanks gentlemen!
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,302
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From: Burlington, WI
I had one of their whooptie distributors in a '72 T- bird I used to own. Was supposed to be a one and done thing. Drop it in, set the timing, hook it up and go.
I hated that stupid thing. The pick up went bad twice on me, both times when I was a good ways away from home. Fortunately the second time I was close enough that I had someone bring me my OE points distributor. Dropped it in and she fired right up. I will never again run anything with a Mallory sticker on it.
That's my story. Others may differ.
I hated that stupid thing. The pick up went bad twice on me, both times when I was a good ways away from home. Fortunately the second time I was close enough that I had someone bring me my OE points distributor. Dropped it in and she fired right up. I will never again run anything with a Mallory sticker on it.
That's my story. Others may differ.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 896
Likes: 55
From: Bothell
I’ve had several that worked good and one that didn’t (bought the bad one used and could never get it to run right)
If you run a MSD ignition box or some other box then the voltage to the unilite module doesn’t matter. If you are running the unilite module on its own then you do need to drop the voltage with a ballast resistor or a resistor wire.
On a side note Accel modules are the same as Mallory ones but cost less.
If you run a MSD ignition box or some other box then the voltage to the unilite module doesn’t matter. If you are running the unilite module on its own then you do need to drop the voltage with a ballast resistor or a resistor wire.
On a side note Accel modules are the same as Mallory ones but cost less.
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Laughing Gas
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From: Idaho
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Mallory is now owned by Holley. They are reissuing the Unilite for nostalgic reasons.
Unilites work just fine until you hit them with voltage spikes or run without a ballast resistor of at least 1.4 ohms, meaning no more than 12.0 volts to the Unilite if you're hooking directly to the coil.
The Unilite distributor has adjustability as an advantage, the original box held sets of springs and instructions to recurve the distributor.
Mallory has been making high performance ignition systems since before I was born, and I'm old. The Unilite was a great idea, matter of fact the same triggering idea is available in some very very high performance distributors used by circle track racers. But the Unilite module wasn't tough enough for the abuse it would suffer, so it got a bad rep.
The distributors themselves still fetch a decent price on Ebay. Maybe sell yours and get another brand with a pickup coil?
R.
Unilites work just fine until you hit them with voltage spikes or run without a ballast resistor of at least 1.4 ohms, meaning no more than 12.0 volts to the Unilite if you're hooking directly to the coil.
The Unilite distributor has adjustability as an advantage, the original box held sets of springs and instructions to recurve the distributor.
Mallory has been making high performance ignition systems since before I was born, and I'm old. The Unilite was a great idea, matter of fact the same triggering idea is available in some very very high performance distributors used by circle track racers. But the Unilite module wasn't tough enough for the abuse it would suffer, so it got a bad rep.
The distributors themselves still fetch a decent price on Ebay. Maybe sell yours and get another brand with a pickup coil?
R.
FTE Legend
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 30,912
Likes: 4,123
From: Angier, NC
I had one of their whooptie distributors in a '72 T- bird I used to own. Was supposed to be a one and done thing. Drop it in, set the timing, hook it up and go.
I hated that stupid thing. The pick up went bad twice on me, both times when I was a good ways away from home. Fortunately the second time I was close enough that I had someone bring me my OE points distributor. Dropped it in and she fired right up. I will never again run anything with a Mallory sticker on it.
That's my story. Others may differ.
I hated that stupid thing. The pick up went bad twice on me, both times when I was a good ways away from home. Fortunately the second time I was close enough that I had someone bring me my OE points distributor. Dropped it in and she fired right up. I will never again run anything with a Mallory sticker on it.
That's my story. Others may differ.
I would never run the unilite again but have a duel point in my 70 AMC 360 that works & runs great. Also had a duel point in a VW motor that ran great.
I have a duel point dist. body with a conversion kit to electronic but uses a different pick up system like Pertronix kits do and that is in another AMC 304 and runs great also.
Thing is Mallory has not made that conversion kit in like 25 years. I have been told that Pertronix makes a kit that fits the Mallory dist. but don't remember now it that was for the duel point (most likely as that is what I have) or the Unilite.
Dave ----
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