I suspect that a lot of the issues with electronic ignition conversions are due to less than ideal installations. In general they tend to work best with a "cleaner" current supply. I wouldn't worry so much about using them on a vehicle with an alternator and a solid state voltage regulator. And carefully following the manufacturer's installation instructions. For an older car or truck with a generator and a mechanical regulator I'd lean more towards the points and condenser set up. They seem to be more tolerant of having a slightly "dirtier" current output from the charging system.
I think it's the roll of the dice honestly. New parts, regardless of the mfg. these days are a 50/50 shot of failure. I agree with Mark, if you want to convert back to points, it isn't that hard to do, but use NOS parts. I had good luck with my Pertronix, but I have heard horror stories, so use your best judgement.
Talked to the builder. He switched back to an igniter I from a II because of reliability? He also switched to a Bosch internal resistor 3.3 ohm coil for reliability. I'm building a spare distributor to keep in the tool box and thought about a spare coil but am finding the Bosch coil hard to find. I'm curious how a product (Pertronix) which seems to have a sketchy history of reliability is so popular? The shop I have used for the past 20 years building cars just scoffs when I mention points. My best experience with electronic ignition was back when I was using the Chevy ZZZ, ZZ3 & 4 Chevy crate motors with the factory HEI. I can't remember a failure and I drove them lots of miles. They are a little large but seem to work good.
The man I traded the pickup out of said he was smokin the Pertronix modules until a friend told him to go to a Bosch #00-12 coil and that seemed to solve the problem. My local parts store has the coil on order.
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