Hey all,
Well I am in an unusual situation, my 41 truck with a 54 235 is all complete and running fine...all it needs is driving. Since the road salt season is upon us, there is no more driving until spring so a little self induced tinkering is at hand.
How often do you guys replace ignition parts such as distributor caps, rotors, points, condensers, and sparkplugs? My truck only goes for weekend joyrides so the miles don't accumulate that fast so I am not really wearing out parts from use. For the most part, the ignition components have been on the truck since I got it together around 2015 accumulating perhaps 1000 miles per year.
Since embarking on this truck journey, I have learned that the initial quality of the part is paramount to anything else. Good quality parts work well and cheap parts don't work so well. Recently I replaced the cheap modern vendor aluminum contact distributer cap with a nice brass contact NOS Delco Remy cap and rotor. The results were substantial. The remaining ignition parts are NOS Delco Remy or AC. Do I really need to replace points and condenser on a decent running engine? The AC plugs show a nice gray/brown burn color with no evidences of fouling and no discernible erosion on the electrodes.
Is there some point when fresh parts just perform better and it makes sense to replace them even though they are still functioning? What do you all use as a metric for maintenance replacement on a low use pleasure vehicle?
I look forward to hearing your opinions.
Oh, and happy New Year!
Paul
