As a kid I was into small block Chevy building and used quite a few Edelbrock parts, the Torqer and SP2P manifolds come to mind as well as carbs. It was a lot of fun, wish engines were that simple today.
I had a chance to buy a 65 Ford with a 390 in it and the guy said it was upgraded to a pointless ignition because points were too difficult to figure out. Because of that stupidity I backed out of the deal.
A good electronic ignition system is way better than points and the mechanical limitations of a distributor.
Altitude compensation and knock sensors come immediately to mind.
“points were too difficult to figure out.”
Say what?!
Unreal..
Kids are so dumb these days its lucky they know how to feed their faces.
I went to marine diesel engineering school. Didnt do real well, but didnt do bad either. But I will grant you this. these kids have no idea what a REAL diesel/gas engine is. Out on the water, you cant go to a parts store for parts. Out there, you had to MAKE your own parts. So, the courses included naval welding certification, advanced machining engineering, as well as the usual diesel knowledge. If a rod cracked or broke on one of those diesels, you had to weld it up to get back to port. And it had to be done correctly.
I know how to replace, adjust, file points, but the distibuter is at the back of my 58 Impala. I remember having to fuss with the points on my other 58 and decided to put one of those little electronic gadgets in place of points on this one. No worries about the points wearing down or burning out if closed while the ignition on. If the 65 Ford distributor is in front, then no big deal.
>>I had a chance to buy a 65 Ford with a 390 in it and the guy said it was upgraded to a pointless ignition because points were too difficult to figure out. Because of that stupidity I backed out of the deal.<<
I had a Datsun PL 620 truck (great vehicle) that had dual points. It had a slightly warped distributor shaft so I had to replace the points pretty frequently. I kept a bunch of ‘em in my glove box. When the car would start missing I would pull over, pop the hood, grab 2 sets of points, open the distributor caps, replace the points, go in and kick the engine a few times to get the shaft right, gap the points with a dime, close and be on my way. All in 10 minutes or so.
Later, I got an after market electronic ignition (it replaced the points in the distributor with a light sensor) and that was that. The cool part was how easy it was to install.
Ah, remember when they made cars we could WORK on?
Our family had a 63 Ford Galaxy with a 390. It was a screamer.