That distributor looks pretty rough. The lobes are messy, dirty internally, rusty, not as water tight at the wires as it should be. Whether the mechanical advance is working properly is anyone’s guess. You should consider a little refresh of the distributor.
Points, very reliable, easy to repair. The Petronix is just a trigger for the coil, just like the points, so it’s not a high performance upgrade. I have run points for years. A little maintenance here and there and they give great service and frankly have never let me down.
That being said, the Petronix will not fix a poorly working distributor. I would get a replacement, a good replacement with a nice clean set of lobes, and have it properly rebuilt. Then if it were me, I would run the points. If you want to go with Petronix, install a new unit. If HEI is what you want, head over to:
http://forums.devestechnet.com/foru...our-old-stovebolt-timing-and-compressionDeve is a member here and has a kit for converting a Delco distributor to HEI or Langdon at stovebolt engine company has a HEI based on a 90s era v6 GM distributor.
