I saw in the pinging engine post you should use a vacuum advance from a 71 400 to get the proper advance when you remove the egr. Im glad I read this because I want to repace my distrubritor soon and would have just went with the orginal part.

My question is, if I buy a 71 distrubritor can I convert it to electronic easily?

 

Over the years the parts suppliers work at finding out how to combine part numbers. Since there are a number of vac cannisters that will fit all these distributors, they probably only have one with whatever vac/advance characteristics it might have. I expect that even the ones you find at the dealer would fall in this category.

If you went to the dealer and ordered a distributor for a 71 model, you would most likely not get the same cannister that would have been on your car when new.

Secondly if you will convert to electronic anyway, don't start with a point type distributor. You might try getting a vac cannister only for a 71 distributor.

It will be somewhat difficult to duplicate the vac advance curve that Torque1st describes without the use of a distributor machine. These are not made any more, but there are some left around. I had one when I was in college(early seventies) and made lots of extra money running distributors for people. I should never have turned loose of the machine.

You can accomplish all this on a car with a timing light as long as you have a harmonic balancer that is marked high enough, but it is a real chore.

I hope to do a little work with the advance curve info that Torque1st offered and if I come up with anything I will share the info here. I have another project to complete before I get to it, so it might be awhile.

Good luck,
Doc

 

Pertronix makes a points to electric conversion that fits inside the distributor cap. Infact the make two. One is the ignitor and the other is the ignitor II. The ignitor II can adjust your dwell for better starts and smoother running. They are advertised often in hot rod magazines. They also make matching coils and plug wires. We have used them alot in ministocks and sand rails and they work awesome. for under 120 dollars for the ignitor II it isn't too bad of a deal. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the info.

I'll just put in what it came with and see what happens. It doesn’t ping now but the bearings are getting worn in the distributor and I wanted to do it right.