Dual point Mallory distributor

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Penstarpurist

Penstarpurist

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Was shopping craigslist again and saw an ad on there again for an old school mallory dual point distributor. The ad had been listed many times over the last at least year along with a stock mopar dizzy. He was asking $25 for the dual and 15 for the stock. Got the dual point for a $20 bill. Small block application. I didn't buy it with any specific plan in mind, just wanted it for the price. Now that I bought it, any thoughts on it? Is $20 a steal of a deal or average? Should I actually use it in a future build or just put it on the shelf of cool nostalgia? I will post pics in a couple days, the guy lives 50 miles from me, so my sister who lives in his area picked it up for me a few minutes ago as I gave her the cash while she was down visiting. She is coming down on Tuesday to visit again and drop it off. Look forward to your guys thoughts. Thanks.
 
See if you can buy the drop in Unilite module and be done with it. I gave up on points in 1983 when I bought my first Unilite. Which, coincidentally I had an MSD box and that was the last year I used one of those.
 
You may or may not be able to get parts for it. If it's not a solid hunk of rust, you did OK

PLEASE ATTEMPT TO TEACH YOURSELF NOT TO CALL THESE THINGS A "DIZZY." Thank you very much

Elvis-Thank-You.jpg
 
Lol. Okay I'll go with "distributor" from here on. I'll definitely look into the unilite module option. We run a unilite on our 400. I know we just put a new set of points on my sons 318 valiant. Would they be the same on the mallory or would they need to be a mallory specific set for their mallory "Distributor"? Just curious if I couldn't get a unilite module for it. If parts aren't available or its a bit crusty and non-op it will just be a nostalgic shop art piece. Lol.
 
Penstarpurist said:
Lol. Okay I'll go with "distributor" from here on. I'll definitely look into the unilite module option. We run a unilite on our 400. I know we just put a new set of points on my sons 318 valiant. Would they be the same on the mallory or would they need to be a mallory specific set for their mallory "Distributor"? Just curious if I couldn't get a unilite module for it. If parts aren't available or its a bit crusty and non-op it will just be a nostalgic shop art piece. Lol.
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I know you can get caps, rotors and stuff like that. You can even get new Unilite modules. What I don't know is if you can get the conversion kit to go from points to the Unilite.

I'm pretty sure if you google it you can find them.
 
The points/condenser will be Mallory specific. Make sure you don't have a Double-Life Mallory, they aren't worth running.

Does it have a vacuum advance, some do, some don't.

Pertronix makes a points replacement for those old dual point Mallorys.
 
It's a dual point not the dual life. From the pics and description I'm guessing it is not a vacuum advance model. I didn't even notice or think to look for that. It just has the coil wire coming out of it. I just tried buying a 5" auto meter tach with shift light from a guy on the list. He was asking $75, I just missed out. It was new in the box. Darn.
 
Penstarpurist said:
It's a dual point not the dual life. From the pics and description I'm guessing it is not a vacuum advance model. I didn't even notice or think to look for that. It just has the coil wire coming out of it. I just tried buying a 5" auto meter tach with shift light from a guy on the list. He was asking $75, I just missed out. It was new in the box. Darn.
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"Dual life" is also dual point. Back in the old days, Mallory made all sorts of oddball stuff, "4 lobe cam" Google "Rev-pol" LOL
 
$20 is a good deal, but I don't think I'd run a dual point anymore when I can run an electronic distributor. Maybe for a period correct build or something, a day two set up or similar where you wanted performance parts from back then.

Funny how a little slang gets everyone bent out of shape. Everyone here knows exactly what a "dizzy" is by the way you used it. Easier to type it too. No question you were talking about a distributor, so who cares? I undermeant what he stood.

And we call intake manifolds "intakes", and exhaust headers just "headers". I mean, you could be talking about someone heading the ball in soccer, or setting the headers and footers in a word processing document, who knows?

This hobby is full of all kinds of slang terms for parts and tools, and that goes back historically. Chop tops, lead sleds, gasser, digger, slingshot, blowers, huffers, bumpsticks, nosed, decked, frenched, mags, slots, hopped up, mill, flatty, drop top, Dagmars, steelies, zoomies...I mean, pretty much every single darn part of any consequence has a slang term, same with the type and style of just about every car worth mentioning. So why take offense to calling a distributor a "dizzy"? Seems pretty silly, especially in this hobby. Not exactly poet laureates here.
 
I like the distributor curve setup , on Mallory. I like the Pertronix conversion idea , as well.
 
Even though I had some problems with a couple dual points in my younger days, although I was running probably worn out units even in early eighties, I really want to retro-fit one of my vehicles with a GOOD dual point distributor and mechanical fuel pump and voltage regulator set-up. E-85 compatible maybe ? Basically a low component failure possibility type of vehicle. ALTHOUGH.........maybe it would serve a new purpose. Sort of a bug-out vehicle. Not a Doomsday kind of guy, but been thinking about it lately. Did hear that if N Korea was to attempt a nuclear strike on U.S. it would more than likely be an overhead type bomb, meant to disrupt electronic systems and cause panic & chaos when everything shuts down.
 
Lol. Thanks 72bluNblu, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. I've seen the term dizzy used for years on alot of forums. Wasn't inventing or coining a new term. I'm definitely not a doomsday guy either, but the thought of having parts and pieces that are immune to an emp or solar flare is a fun and reassuring thought for sure. I'm going to check out the summit pertronix kit that jazak5 mentioned. Thanks for the info guys.
 
67Dart273 said:
"Dual life" is also dual point. Back in the old days, Mallory made all sorts of oddball stuff, "4 lobe cam" Google "Rev-pol" LOL
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So they're the ones that started the "dizzy" thing! LOL Rev-pol= reverse polarity:lol:
 
Penstarpurist said:
Lol. Thanks 72bluNblu, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. I've seen the term dizzy used for years on alot of forums. Wasn't inventing or coining a new term. I'm definitely not a doomsday guy either, but the thought of having parts and pieces that are immune to an emp or solar flare is a fun and reassuring thought for sure. I'm going to check out the summit pertronix kit that jazak5 mentioned. Thanks for the info guys.
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Some of the feathers around here are pretty easy to ruffle. I don't know why calling a distributor a dizzy causes people grief, but it's come up in threads before. :rolleyes: Like I said, even the people that hate that particular term use slang in other cases, so, it's just a personal preference.

I run a Pertronix in my Challenger, I've had good luck with it. Although it's part of a Pertronix billet plug and play. I have a mallory unilite in my Duster. I think I like the how the Mallory does the springs and advance a little better, but it's not a huge deal. Both are easier than trying to weld and file a stock distributor, but now that they have those limit plates the stockers would be pretty easy to curve too.

Yeah I'm no prepper either, but I do keep a points distributor and ballast around in working condition, just in case. I keep thinking I could use it to diagnose something if I had an issue with one of the electronic ones, but I have a couple of those to swap around anyway. I guess I've got the points dizzy if we get EMP'd or there's a massive solar flare I suppose. Wouldn't be perfectly tuned but at least it would work. :D
 
72bluNblu said:
Some of the feathers around here are pretty easy to ruffle. I don't know why calling a distributor a dizzy causes people grief, but it's come up in threads before. :rolleyes: Like I said, even the people that hate that particular term use slang in other cases, so, it's just a personal preference.

I run a Pertronix in my Challenger, I've had good luck with it. Although it's part of a Pertronix billet plug and play. I have a mallory unilite in my Duster. I think I like the how the Mallory does the springs and advance a little better, but it's not a huge deal. Both are easier than trying to weld and file a stock distributor, but now that they have those limit plates the stockers would be pretty easy to curve too.

Yeah I'm no prepper either, but I do keep a points distributor and ballast around in working condition, just in case. I keep thinking I could use it to diagnose something if I had an issue with one of the electronic ones, but I have a couple of those to swap around anyway. I guess I've got the points dizzy if we get EMP'd or there's a massive solar flare I suppose. Wouldn't be perfectly tuned but at least it would work. :D
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Damn that made me laugh!!!!

I'm no prepper....lol
 
Abodybomber said:
I like the distributor curve setup , on Mallory. I like the Pertronix conversion idea , as well.
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I had one in the 80's that I put a Pertronix converter kit on and it was awesome. Super reliable and easy to adjust the timing curve. I wish I still had it today.
 
GRANCUDA said:
The points/condenser will be Mallory specific. Make sure you don't have a Double-Life Mallory, they aren't worth running.

Does it have a vacuum advance, some do, some don't.

Pertronix makes a points replacement for those old dual point Mallorys.
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Actually, they are not. Nine times out of ten, they use points that fit a Ford application. I found points for my Mallory through work.
 
This kind of thing is why parts stores "are such a crime" nowadays. In my day, be it Delco, Standard Blue Streak, P&D Bendix, or a few other brands, and whether Holley, Mallory, Autolite or what, whether a welder, tractor or hot rod, you reached under the counter which held TONS of catalogs and references, and grabbed the interchange/ numerical listing.........AND SIMPLY LOOKED IT UP

99% of the kids in "parts stores" -------and this includes our local NAPA, have no idea what to do, outside of looking up year/ make / model
 
67Dart273 said:
This kind of thing is why parts stores "are such a crime" nowadays. In my day, be it Delco, Standard Blue Streak, P&D Bendix, or a few other brands, and whether Holley, Mallory, Autolite or what, whether a welder, tractor or hot rod, you reached under the counter which held TONS of catalogs and references, and grabbed the interchange/ numerical listing.........AND SIMPLY LOOKED IT UP

99% of the kids in "parts stores" -------and this includes our local NAPA, have no idea what to do, outside of looking up year/ make / model
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We have a 25 volume catalog set where each "book" is about 6" thick. Every O'Reilly store does.......but the know how to use them is not in every store.
 
The Mallory dual point work really well if set up right, what I like about them the advance is fully adjustable unlike the accell which only have tree setting, throw a unitlite or a petronix unit set the curve and they are great!
 
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