Mallory Distributor Tips

My dad calls me last night after a cruise to let me know he was broke down on the road. I drove out with the tools and after running a few checks we narrowed it down to the coil or distributor.
We left the car and did a little research about testing and went back this morning armed with a little more info.
If you have Mallory Electronic Dist. this may get you out of a jam.
To test if the Dist. module is out., put the positive lead from the voltage meter to the negative side of the coil, and the negative to a good ground. You should get a 12 volt reading. Now place a credit card between the Photo Eye on the Dist module and the voltage should drop to about 2 volts. If it stays at 12 or so, then the module is out and will need replacement.
Luckily for pop, I run a Mallory on my flathead so we were able to pull my module and get him up and running. I'll file that test away in the old noggin for future reference and keep an extra module in the tool bag for emergencies.
Hope this is of some use to somebody sometime. May get you out of a jam.

 

mallory distributor tip: find the nearest trash can, drop it in!

(ok, seriously, thanks for the tips, and also make sure the ground wire is connected very well before applying power)

 

I agree! Those things go out without a whisper of warning.

 

I've run one for years in my stroker 351W - lost a single module in 20 years & that was my own fault.

They do require clean power. In rods with generators, use an electronic voltage regulator & also use Mallory's inline power filter.

 

That is the best TIP

 

we had the same problems and sold two of them on ebay as is with an explanation of the failure and some lucky lover of mallary bought them and we made a few buck. I thing 1 out of three worked and have great luck with stock HEI even Hei on my ford 289 with a for dist. E dke6bnl

 

I had a dual point one that the pivot pin for the points plate sheared off! 2 days out of warranty.

 

We run one in our race car... and always carry a spare module. If the thing quits running, the first thing we check is the module.

 

I run a dual point mallory, I've had problems with the mallory condensers and points. I've had better luck with replacements from napa.

 

D/P mallory tip: When the chintzy carbon primary contact breaks off in the cap, a sawed off Lincoln .035 mig tip slips right in and gets you going again.

 

i've been running one for years , in 2 different cars . But I do carry extra module.