Well, this is a follow up to the post about Blu giving me trouble - I believe that it is related to the distributor.

I pulled the distributor out last week and sent it to a vendor to take a look at it and tell me where we are with this repo POS. I tried this locally twice before and never got anywhere with it, so it had to go to someone besides a Bubba mechanic.

The dude tells me that we basically have to trash the insides to make it work for the engine I have. Not surprised. About $400 for a rebuild to a supposedly new repo. Lots of other things wrong with it, way too complicated to cover in a post.

I do not have the original distributor for the car, it had a Mallory Dual Point installed probably around 1974. The tach gear failed, that's why I replaced it.

A used tach drive distr may cost $150, but this would probably also be a 30 - 40 y/o worn out part that needs to be refurb'd too.

So, I have to make a hard decision as to fix the one I have, or refurb the Mallory, or some other solution you all may come up with.

The car is completely stock original Base 350.

Thanks guys.

blu72 said: Well, this is a follow up to the post about Blu giving me trouble - I believe that it is related to the distributor. I pulled the distributor out last week and sent it to a vendor to take a look at it and tell me where we are with this repo POS. I tried this locally twice before and never got anywhere with it, so it had to go to someone besides a Bubba mechanic. The dude tells me that we basically have to trash the insides to make it work for the engine I have. Not surprised. About $400 for a rebuild to a supposedly new repo. Lots of other things wrong with it, way too complicated to cover in a post. I do not have the original distributor for the car, it had a Mallory Dual Point installed probably around 1974. The tach gear failed, that's why I replaced it. A used tach drive distr may cost $150, but this would probably also be a 30 - 40 y/o worn out part that needs to be refurb'd too. So, I have to make a hard decision as to fix the one I have, or refurb the Mallory, or some other solution you all may come up with. The car is completely stock original Base 350. Thanks guys.

well are you restoring it or driving it..

if you are looking for a "correct" resto than spend the bucks to fix what youve got but 400 sounds hi..

if youre not looking for a "correct" part.. go with an msd pro billet tach drive dist..

The car is a driver. Just want it to run correctly and reliably.

If I go to some sort of HEI or variant, I will need to trash all the new wires, plugs, and the ign shield over the top of the distr. - plus all the work to yank this apart again and the additional cost of more new parts...see what I mean.

Also looking at Mallory MAL5064501 or the MAL3864501.

Too many choices - either magnetic or optical pickup - which one??

Reasonably priced and looks like it would work ok - completely mechanical adv and breakerless.

This would update me to the 80's and everything would fit.

How about the advance curve on this thing???

|UPDATED|1/24/2005 9:02:32 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

blu72 said: Also looking at Mallory MAL5064501 or the MAL3864501. Too many choices - either magnetic or optical pickup - which one??

okay.. this may just be me but ive had problems with the optical pickup modules going out and costing 120 bucks to replace..

I always used msd... I let someone talk me into a mallory.. I had a horrible time with it.. went back to msd.. also the msd comes with springs and limit bushings for changing your timing curve.. the mallory did not.. had to order seperately..

anyway.. just my opinion... but the MSD service dept is much better too..

Blu72,
I read an article in one of the Corvette mags about a company who works on, and or, replaces distributors. I gave the guy a call, and was impressed with his explanation and detail of his services.
I'll see if I can find the contact information and post it for you when I get home.

When I went to replace my distributor I started out ordering all Mallory.

After receiving it and looking at it (and thinking about it in detail), I sent it all back. Mallory was once "the" name in distributors, but certainly not anymore (am I dating myself , O.K., yes, I am an old fart).

In its place I ordered up an MSD tach drive distributor and a 6A module and a Blaster 2 coil.

I couldn't be happier.

P.S. I got all my MSD stuff at Summit. http://www.summitracing.com/

Blu72,
Here is the contact that I promised you earlier.
WWW.performancedistributor.com. As I had mentioned before, the article on this vendor was very positive, the guy who answered the phone when I called them was realy knowledgable.
It won't cost you a penny to look. They'll also redo your dist.
Good luck

Thanks warbird, I'll check them out today...need to get all the bugs out of Blu so when the snow's gone I'll be all ready to ride.

Good luck,
Let us know how you make out.