New Distrib.Question re: Electronics (HEI?)

[WorkinLonghorn]

I noticed that mileage was way down.Turns out the dwell is fluctuating over 3 degrees (worn shaft bushing most likely) AND the vacuum advance unit diaphragm is broken.
So I either need to try a point replacement product or go to HEI.
I've heard guys on here say that the new ones are reliable,and I've seen them on E-bay for pretty cheap.
I know this has been discussed a lot before,but which one is the good one? Whites? Thx. Brian

[Longhorn Man]

I got one from white, that was about 5000 miles ago, stabbed it in the burb when I left, adjusted the timing a tad after the first long hill, and haven't touched is sence then.
I probably oughta tighten the hold down bold one of these days.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

If it,s for the V-8 window type dist. The Crane kit is much easier to install then the petronics. I have used several & have never had a failure. The factory HEI is the best way to go if you don,t have any clearance problems. Go in & rebuild it first.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Go in & rebuild it first.

Yeah that's always the first option with a cheap &^% like me.But if I can get a new one for $60 or so, I might git me one.
Hey LM do you have the contact info for White.I can't find it anywhere. Thx-Brian

[Longhorn Man]

You know, I just logged onto e-bay where I got mine... and I can't find any evendence of me getting it there. No feedback left, none given, no reminder tellin me to leave it... it's like it never happened.

[WorkinLonghorn]

OK,I found it.It's http://stores.ebay.com/whiteperformance1.
Wonder if it's worth getting the wires too.Maybe I'll just get a cheap set locally.

[WorkinLonghorn]

I guess there's no difference between the white top and red,although I see tons more of the white being sold.

[WestButteTruck]

I got one too from White. Made a good difference in mine. I got the wire kit also. Nice set of wires, he sells the crimper too.

[Longhorn Man]

i got moroso wires on mine now, i had some old ratty ones off a camaro i tuned up at work, they worked for 3000 miles to get it home, but I didn't want to trust them too much longer.
I would get some name brand ones personally... i never seemed to have too much luck with no name or cheapie wires.

[89 crew]

With my burb I can't get over 3K out of a new set of price maker wires. Borg wires hold up good for me and fit so/so.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Thanks for the tip you guys. Actually now that I think about it I had all kinds of grief with my car few years back because I "ruled out" the relatively new wires and was going crazy trying to find a miss.Actually took it into a shop and it was the **& *&*&^ cheap brand X wires.

[Longhorn Man]

i fell for the sam thing on my old town car... embarasing sometimes.

[Boog]

I don't have deep pockets but I don't usually skimp out on engine electrical parts. Those "lifetime warranty" house brands are tempting but they don't pay you a dime for a tow bill or labor to replace the parts when they do go down. A GM HEI dist has always done me a great job. Most I've bought from the salvage yards. while buying name brand wires and such from the better parts stores.

[Longhorn Man]

Most of my HEI units have been junk yard pieces, and I normally swear by them. The only reason I went with a new unit for the burb was the drive home.
If you have the time to shop around at junk yards, you'd be amazed at the brand new parts you'll find as far as tune up parts go. Someone has an old POS Caprice or something that dies, so they slap on cap/rotor/wires.... still no start... they'll stap a coil in it, I've even found a freshly reman'd HEI in a 79-ish Monte Carlo. My longhorn has a junk yard HEI in it, everything in it looked new, and I grabbed the plug wires too. Cost me a total of 25 bucks if I remember right.

[ChevLoRay]

I vote for a rebuilt HEI. I put one from ACCEL in my 350, and haven't had any issues with it at all. Starts NOW! The price was about $120, as I recall. It's actually a rebuild from ACCEL, of an HEI from GM. No qualms about it at all. I'm using their appropriate coil, but it's all in the cap, no firewall-mounted components. If you do go to an HEI, remember that the wiring to the module has to be ignition-on 12V, not the reduced voltage that your points-type distributor receives. That means, no ballast resistor in the circuit.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Well,I'll try the junk-yard one first I guess. I was there for their 1/2 price week-end but I didn't know which Distrib to get.Some of them where possibly some kind of computer controlled units (?) and they all had a bunch of wires coming out that I wouldn't know what to do with.
I'm sure this has been discussed 7,615 times on here so I'll just search.

[ChevLoRay]

1975 was the first year, as my feeble brain recalls, for the cars to have HEI's. I also believe there were some 1980 models that had a computer-based function, like transmission-controlled spark (for instance) that may not be what you want. But which specific HEI you would want....don't know. It may be that you can go up into the mid-80 models but there are others on here who can narrow the range.

[89 crew]

The body of the hei is the same no mater if they are computer controlled or not. The difference is the pick up coil. There is 1 exception to that, that I'm aware of. In early 1982 (first 6 months) there was a version of the hei made without a vacuume or centrifical advance. it won't work!

[El Jay]

I had an ACCEL Hei in my boat & it worked great.
My son put an ACCEL in my truck; when he owned it, POS.
As for wires, I've used NAPA BELKAMP lifetime wires for decades (in various vehicles), w/o virtually no problems.
The one time I did have a problem, I returned the wires w/ a receipt & walked out w/ a new set.
Just my .02.
El Jay

[WorkinLonghorn]

O.K.,been tracking this HEI all the way from Tenn. This is what I found on my porch today;

I didn't realize these things were so huge!!!

This one is from Whites.($46)
Now it's off to NAPA to get these lifetime wires that El Jay recommends. Probly cost more than the distrib.
Also need 2 yellow female connectors for the tach and hot wires. Maybe some new wire to bypass any resister/resister-wire in the circuit.
This is fun,my old work truck has never had this kind of improvement before.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Question; I checked the hot lead to the old points set-up and I found that it was 12+ volts. I also used to burn up points in 1500 miles or so.
Any chance I can just run this lead to the HEI,or will the voltage drop too much with a load involved.
( I tried it but the truck was out of gas and I ran the battery dead.) -Standard proceedure at my age.

[El Jay]

Originally Posted by WorkinLonghorn

Question; I checked the hot lead to the old points set-up and I found that it was 12+ volts. I also used to burn up points in 1500 miles or so.
Any chance I can just run this lead to the HEI,or will the voltage drop too much with a load involved.
( I tried it but the truck was out of gas and I ran the battery dead.) -Standard proceedure at my age.

It's my understanding that the HEI's require 12 V, well, @ least the factory ones.
It sounds like somebody has replaced the resistance wire sometime in the past.
Just my .02 & a SWAG.

[Longhorn Man]

If you are talking about the wire going to the bulkhead connector on the dvr side of the firewall, and not the yellow wire that goes to the starter... then someone has rigged something, and you'll be fine running on it.
Full battery voltage is good, 9 to 10 volts IIRC was what the points were SUPPOSED to run off of.

[truckdude239]

i got mine from skip white on ebay looks good to me haven't installed it yet but it looks good

[WorkinLonghorn]

So how'd yours work out? I got mine from Skip White too only it didn't work,at all. 12volts to Bat. lead,good ground,NO spark.
He's sending another rush. Seems like good people.
I did a check of the coil and cap and one thing I noticed was that I couldn't run the check between the cap center carbon button and the other connections because it didn't conduct electricity AT ALL !! (at least not at the currect level of my meter) Yet the book says to check there.
SO we'll see about the replacement one.