Any good? Issues, reliablility, parts availability? Im looking at a vac advance model for my SBC to replace the point dissy which has seen better days. Anyone also know what the timing curve in the advance plate is? Thanx....
Ran one on my stroker for a few years, never a problem, a little difficult to curve. I changed to MSD to gain vacuum advance cause I needed tach drive and Mallory did not offer one at the time. A few weeks later the tach broke and I went electronic. If the tach had gone south sooner, probably would still have the Mallory!
Frank Do a search here on UNILITE or as some last week called it unlite. My personnel opinion is not very reliable Mallory even recommend you carry a spare module in the glove box just in case and last time i priced one down here it was $320 for the module. I feel you can buy better for your money here and get better reliability. I have a PERFORMANCE DISTRIBUTORS dissy in the FX they are from down your way and they use bosch internal components, so easy to get parts if required. Cost was $350 a few years back. My experience has been install set and forget. Later Troy
I borrowed one from a friend and ran it for a season and it was great, very reliable. I bought one on e-bay and of course I had order a new module, cap and rotor for it but I have had no problems with it after 3 years now. Good luck man, Mike
I've run one in a stroker 351 since 1987. I burned one module in that time & it was my fault. Modules don't cost near that much - they are between $42 & $77 depending on your distributor - check summit: http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+115+-113437&D=-113437 They are reliable and, in my opinion, no harder to recurve than any other distributor. Total distributor advance is dead simple to set with their plastic "key". If you're running a generator, I'd recommend their power filter - about $35-40 from Summit.
Mallory Unilite the best distributor I've ever used. No problems ever. Great for firewall clearance issues.
Been a while since I used one but if I remember correctly the big issue with reliability is incoming voltage. 7-9 volts going into the dist. any more will cause the module to go out. Double check that but I think that is correct.
In my younger days, I worked at Super Shops. The Unilite was the top selling distributor we carried, but we had about 50% come back crying defects right after the sale. I think every single come-back was a failure to run a good resistor on the primary power. The instructions were very clear, but noone ever read them. If I remember correctly, many starting circuits go around the resistor while cranking. The Unilite won't tolerate that. Maybe someone can confirm if I have that right.
A few of my friends have had them in year past, lots of problems. Grounding is very important too, a bad ground connection will let the module fry. I'd rather run points than a unilite myself...
If you're running a generator, I'd recommend their power filter - about $35-40 from Summit.<!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________ hmm whats that? imma be running a unilite with a gen...im glas i stumbled onto this thread! i do know that ill be switching to points one day soon! just goin to use what ive got till then...
I have run many of them over the years and only had one module go out. Hell, I have had an HEI go out to, that mean they suck as well? The biggest thing you can do is read the instructions and do what they say. Most guys that badmouth them are listening to bad information they got 2nd or 3rd hand from an idiot that didn't follow the instructions in the first place.
Got a lot of miles on mine with zero trouble. I've heard a lot of negative stuff about them as well, but mine came with my motor so I used it. If I we're buying new though, I'd probly go a different route based on all the input from other people. And yes the proper ballast resistor and ground is a must.
If the module will pop because the ground goes away or some other simple problem, then mallory did a bad job designing it. HEIs go bad too...but every auto parts store has replacement modules for them.
i run one on my hemi it is operating fine. You have to remember to use the filter available from mallory to cut any voltage spikes out of the system. By the way the mallory E-spark module is a direct replacement for the unilite module but cost 37 dollars at summit, that is a third of the cost of the unilite replacement module.
The Jalopy Journal
