Electrically they both do the same thing, they replace the mechanical point
set with a hall effect sensor, where a magnetic field and a moving conductor
induces a very small electric current that goes to a transistor from there,
its amplified and sent to the coil. I may have missed a detail there in
that rough sketch, but the idea of each is the same, how they accomplish it
is the only real difference.
The mopar unit uses a rotating steel reluctor and a stationary magnet, the
pertronix uses a rotating series of 8 magnets that rotate past a stationary
sensor. The net effect is the same. On the mopar unit, there is a control
box, a control module and a harness of 4 wires that you have to connect to
your coil pos and neg, and to the start and run circuits off the ignition.
Usually you can pick off the start and run wires near the ballast resistor.
There is also a short harness between the distributor itself and the control
box but that is pre molded and all you do is just plug it in. It is a very
easy thing to install and hides rather well if you dont want it to be too
noticeable. They come with instructions that are very exact and easy to
follow. They should be on the IML website.
On the pertronix unit, you remove the points, install a little adapter plate
and the sugar cube sized box with the circuits inside of it. Then you run a
set of 2 wires to the coil, and depending on what your car has, you
sometimes have to bypass the ballast resistor...the Pertronix instructions
say EXACTLY what you have to do.
I have used both, if your distributor is in fairly good mechanical shape and
you dont want to hassle with the module and harness, then you may want to go
that route. The only conceivable drawback is that when it fails ( not
if....either of them can quit unexpectedly ) and you dont have a spare, you
WONT generally find a pertronix at any local parts store. You can replace a
mopar performance orange box with any 72 and later ECU from napa, pep boys,
autozone, etc....as long as its a chrysler product ecu it will work. All
you need to do is match the number of pins inside the top of the ecu, it
will be a 4 or 5 pin unit and will have a pentastar shape to the top of it.
There were some later model that are more of a D shape, or oval shape, those
are not the kind I am referring to.
Hopefully that answered the question....whatever it was now, whether one is
better or worse than the other is too subjective. You can get the same
results from either as far as replacing points. You do get a slightly
hotter spark and you can open the plug gaps a few thousandths of an inch to
take advantage of that. There are other arguments about this pro and con,
you can probably find them in the archives.
Mikey
62 Crown Coupe
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