Helping a friend get a 55 Pontiac Starchief on the road again. A search didn't seem to show anything specific to my question. The car is 287 cu in 4bbl with a dual point distributor. The car has a slight miss so I was looking at the normal tune up components. I noticed something about the resistor for the ignition coil. EVERYTHING seems to be like it would be from the factory and the ignition wire that I am use to see going to the resistor block is on the output side of the block (hope to check resistance value tomorrow).The coil is a big rectangular one and it seems the coil wire is part of the coil (??). Is it possible the coil has an internal resistor due to the dual points distributor and the resistor block is installed on every car no matter the distributor? Any help is much appreciated!
Sounds like it has an old Mallory coil on it and possibly Matching Mallory distributor. Stick this in the Ebay search and see if the one in the photo looks like the one on the car. 232473076700 I found that one in this search that shows more old square Mallory coils. https://www.ebay.com/b/Mallory-Vintage-Car-Truck-Parts/10073/bn_19392372
Many thanks!! I believe you have pointed me in the right direction. Your ebay link shows a brochure at the top of the page for Mallory Magspark Transformer. It looks exactly like what I thought was a coil but the distributor looks slightly different. Ill look for a Mallory ID on both parts today.
I've looked for ID on the distributor. It has a Delco Remy tag on it but I cant read the number well. The coil does say MagSpark on the top but no name or ID number. Anyone know if this takes a stock GM points set for both points??
My first Bonneville GMC had a Mallory dual point plate I added and one of those coils. It was the best non-electronic distributor I ever had and I still have it. It was common to buy those plates from speed shops or directly from Mallory, along with it was the big outside condenser which is a little hard to get today. I did run a stock 57 ballast resister with it. If I remember right it used stock GM Chev 6 cylinder points because they were a pretty small unit. Harley Davidsons used them too. If you can shoot a photo with the cap and rotor off I think I can help with that. I have lots of sets and look at them. Good luck...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/mobile-gallery/27715ffb2dacca4fbfcf329a904f6f45.jpg[/IM Thanks jimmy six. Here is a picture. Sounds just like you described. Sent from my iPhone using [url=http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=77983]The H.A.M.B. mobile app[/url]
Don't think they are the same I need to find the box mines in and check them. I'll bet that's a Mallory plate in a stock dist. Point are probably stock 55 Pontiac. Mine only uses 1 condenser. If operating and wired correctly one set opens and the others set does the closing allowing for a longer dwell and saturation of the condenser making a hotter spark and saving points. The theory anyway......
Mallory points. I'd clean everything that moves, repair the wiring, & file & lube the points. Most Mallory dual conversions use a .020 gap.
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