Get rid of points
They're both nice looking cars in their own ways.
You don't have to take the Duster off th eroad for months.
A few afternoons or evenings (if you have light). Should get the critical wires into better condition and better supported.
The crimper is the same as will be used with Packard 56 terminals common on GM products.
Wire can be bought from a marine supply, Wire barn, and other places.
I usually mail order shrink tubing from McMaster-Carr.
The general scheme of the critical circuits can be hard to see from the shop manual electrical diagrams. That's why I redraw the circuits of interest. But you will want the shop manual diagrams if you don't already have. 1974 is a tougher year to read electrically because of the seat belt interlock along with other changes, but the basic scheme is still pretty simple.
With the engine running, electricity flows from the alternator (R6 wire) through two connectors to the key switch. Then to the Ignition Circuit (J2) which feeds both the ignition and the alternator field. The voltage regulator 'sense' terminal is also connected to the ignition run circuit. If the batteryneeds recharging some current branches off at the main splice and goes to the battery.
To run a points distributor is practically the same except there is no ECU that needs power.
All someone would have needed to do was connect the negative of the coil to the distributor instead of to the ECU.
They're both nice looking cars in their own ways.
You don't have to take the Duster off th eroad for months.
A few afternoons or evenings (if you have light). Should get the critical wires into better condition and better supported.
The crimper is the same as will be used with Packard 56 terminals common on GM products.
Wire can be bought from a marine supply, Wire barn, and other places.
I usually mail order shrink tubing from McMaster-Carr.
The general scheme of the critical circuits can be hard to see from the shop manual electrical diagrams. That's why I redraw the circuits of interest. But you will want the shop manual diagrams if you don't already have. 1974 is a tougher year to read electrically because of the seat belt interlock along with other changes, but the basic scheme is still pretty simple.
With the engine running, electricity flows from the alternator (R6 wire) through two connectors to the key switch. Then to the Ignition Circuit (J2) which feeds both the ignition and the alternator field. The voltage regulator 'sense' terminal is also connected to the ignition run circuit. If the batteryneeds recharging some current branches off at the main splice and goes to the battery.
To run a points distributor is practically the same except there is no ECU that needs power.
All someone would have needed to do was connect the negative of the coil to the distributor instead of to the ECU.