Hot Rods Do not buy a Mallory Unilite distributor !

We just had a local race shop build a new 468 Olds engine for my Son Dan's RPU, to replace the one he has been running in it. While we were at it, I ordered a new cap, rotor, wires, and coil from Summit and last night we installed the parts. (A little history, my Sons and I are all running Unilite distributors on our cars and they have been flawless for years)

When I put the new cap on, I went to advance the timing and the new cap seemed loose on the distributor body. It was in a Mallory box and was the right part number, but I could take my hand and move it about 1/16 of an inch in all directions. I put the old cap back on, and it fit nice and tight, like they always did.

I called Summit and their tech guy said Mallory is no more, they have been bought out by MSD, and I would need to call them to see what was up. This morning I called them and they referred me to the Mallory Tech Dept. Nice man there said this is the second call he has gotten on the same issue and he wants my cap sent to him to see what is going on.

He gave me a little history lesson: In March of this year, Mallory was bought out by an investment group and all the parts are now made in Mexico, not the USA as previously done. He sounded very frustrated and said "Mallory does not exist any more". So I guess we have some orphans and will need to look for another brand. On Dans car, the problem is, there is NO room between the engine and firewall for a larger distributor, and the Mallory was very compact.

Just thought I would pass this along in case anyone has, or is thinking of buying, a Mallory distributor.
NAFTA sure has been great, hasn't it ???????????


Don

 

Thank you - need a dist for the 283 thats in my altered......I will cross them off the list......please update this thread if you find a solution though

 

I am not sure even an MSD distributor is ok any more. I have one for the 355 Chevy I am going to use in my altered, and, from what the guy said, ALL MSD and Mallory parts are now made in Mexico.

Don

 

But Holley just bought MSD, so everything will be all better soon.

Right?

I run an old Mallory dual point on my Chevy II, it works ok. the trick is to get old used stuff. I've got several of them for free....look around, you should be able to find a good deal on some good used spare parts for it.

 

"NAFTA sure has been great, hasn't it ???????????"
Yeah, like a big sucking sound drawing all the industry out of the United States.
Thanks for the heads up. I have 2 Mallorys and guess there won't be any decent parts for them anymore.

 

I asked both Summit and Mallory if they had any of the previous stock (USA made) and both said no. I was planning on buying some spare parts now.

Don

 

When "MSD" (or whats left of MSD) bought Mallory, I'm pretty sure the game plan was/is to slowly dismantle Mallory and absorb it, I doubt there will be ANY new Mallory parts OR distributors going forward, good bad or otherwise. Don, you should have jumped on the NOS parts when I posted about this buyout 3-4 months ago!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/big-ol-mallory-brass-condensers.980309/#post-11040761

 

Sad commentary on the state of the world today. Quality control has been left to the consumer to deal with.

 

The guy at Mallory said technically, MSD didn't buy Mallory, they are both owned by the same investment group. So is Accel, and guess what ? The chrome coil we got from Summit in the same order was leaking oil right inside the box !

It is really frustrating when you spend good money and get junk.

Don

 

the magic words.

 

Don, I have a Mallory 208M cap in stock, it is the HEI style post conversion with girdle on top that fits the Unilite and a couple rotors - original Mallory stuff, shoot me a PM if it'll help.

 

Hence the comment "(or whats left of MSD)" I also made a comment on another thread that with the attitude of the current MSD management, I predict that within 5 years, ICE will have pushed MSD out as the racers choice in ignition, or something to that effect.

 

There's your answer. Some bean counters got a hold of them and are sucking all value out as fast as they can...

Depressing... I liked MSD and have had great luck with their stuff.

 

Yes I have MSD on my Olds and was planning on a new cap soon now what... Whats left any more that is good?? I have heard bad things about standard parts too being made cheap too...

 

It's a shame what investment groups and their bean counters have done to this country. Sadly, it's all about the portfolio....

 

Wow - so much for progress

 

The Wall Street musclecar whores did the same thing.
Fu@#&$$$flippers.

 

Bingo. Guys carry on like China is deliberately undermining hot rodding and the American way, what bullshit. Its the American based investment groups that are undermining the American Way, and they don't give a shit if the lowest bidder is in China, Indonesia, or Ohio. All they give a shit about, is buying up companies that have built a good reputation over the years, using that name to market the cheapest shit possible, with the highest possible short term profit margin, and when the name is worthless 3-4 yrs later, shutting down the company and getting a fat tax break. Fucking carpet baggers...
As far as what to do about it, well the answer to that is political in nature, and off-topic...But its pretty clear that the speculation driven, Y2K version of good ol' capitalism is hell bent on eating itself, limb by limb.
The only light on the horizon are companies like Crane Cams, that have gone through the entire cycle. After the carpet baggers were done gang raping Crane, by some miracle, it wound up back in the hands of people that actually give a shit, and are doing their best to resurrect the name and reputation of the company.

 

Crap...I have Mallory 5" tach with shift light and rpm limiter that the needle has started twitching at idle and goes away [the twitch] by 2k or so..So I am thinking what a pain it will be to remove from the car and after reading above posts I wonder if there is a repair/service in existence by the investment group?. In retrospect the tach is about 35 years old, maybe I'll just ignore it. Sigh...

 

And to a large extent, it's our fault. Somebody has to buy this crap, and they find a ready market in unaware/cheapskate consumers who only look at the pricetag, without a single thought about long-term value. It's a throw-away world....

 

Don,
Would the early SBC small dia. distributor fit?
The Mallory always would just squeeze by the firewall,
if you jacked up the tailshaft during install.

 

Yup! WE started this whole shit ball rolling down the hill in the 1980's, with the economic policies of the time, and the whole "greed is good" thing and the attitude that making money by actually PRODUCING something was passe, and speculation was the only respectable way to get rich. That turned out well, didn't it?

 

We could go on & on bitchin' about the state of things. Best thing I can think of, when a shit part/Company is outed, spread the word & boycott the hell out of 'em. Without getting too far OT, this country needs to get back to putting pride over greed.

 

NAFTA was the hell-hole-portal that paved the way for everything going to China. The Mexicans overall have screwed the pooch in making just about anything correctly. The people in the factories just do not care and they have the flimsiest of grasps on anything technical.

I know people who work for companies that do a lot of manufacturing in Mexico and I hear it all the time. We had them do a run of PC boards for us... we needed the product badly so we agreed to do the rework here. We had one guy working full time with unlimited OT just writing up the rework instructions.

 

George, what is ICE? I'm unfamiliar with those initials.

 

I recently bought a Borla exhaust system for my new 5.0 liter 2015 F150 truck.
Borla is way behind in filling orders and when I called the factory in Tennessee I was told that they could probably use a factory twice the size they are right now.
They stated that they are considering expanding and that there is no way they are considering manufacturing in China or elsewhere.
I love my new Borla exhaust.

 

gotta like that!

 

http://www.iceignition.com/ignition-kits Out of Australia....

 

These guys.
http://www.iceignition.com/ignition-kits
They are already making HUGE inroads in drag racing, where MSD has pretty much had a lock since the mid seventies. These guys started really cutting in with the heads-up small tire guys and Pro Stock in the nineties, and since carpet baggers really cant bother "wasting" money on silly stuff like competent tech support and R&D, its only a matter of time before seeing an MSD box on a serious race car is going to be a thing of the past.

Ooops, I see Steve was typing at the same time I was. Australia is where a LOT of the good stuff is coming from now. They still have speed equipment co's that are owned by racers, and operated for racers, and give somewhat of a shit about what sort of product they turn out.

 

DAMN STRAIGHT!! And BOY did us Canadians get screwed on THAT deal. The consequences of that deal for us haven't really come home to roost yet...Wait till fresh water starts to get scarce, then we are gonna find out what we REALLY signed up for...But we are starting to wander off topic now...