Mallory ignition questions, Partial success! Options

[VaccaRabite]

My carbed 2056 uses a Mallory Unilite ignition. All summer long I have been fighting intermitant misses leading to the motor dieing at idle. After dicking with the carbs and adding fresh spark plugs, I am now moving to ignition.

So here is how my system is set up.

Bosch blue coil.
Mallory Unilite ignition.
The ignition is behind a resistor block.
MSD spiral wound plug wires.
NKG b5es plugs pregapped (one heat range hotter then stock as suggested in the resent spark plug thread) .

My tach is not dancing when I have a miss. The idle indicated drops as expected, no drama. So I don't think that the coil is grounding out or arcing.

As I understand the Mallory dizzy, it either works or it does not work, and there is not a lot of in-between.

My primary suspects are the plug wires. I am using the MSD spiral wound wires suggested for use with the Mallory, and I have only been using them this season.

Since you are not supposed to use the regular plug wires with a Mallory (as they can somehow cause the optical unit to burn out) buying replacement wires on a hunch is kinda expensive. Am I chasing my tail with this?

Also, I am using the stock gap. I think I am supposed to be able to use a wider gap with the Mallory, which will give better ignition. What kind of gap should I be shooting for? If it does turn out to be the plug wires as the problem area, should I go back to the stock heat range plugs, or stay with the hotter ranged plugs?

Oh, and for the "go back to FI" crowd, my motor is using a cam that would cause D Jet to commit suicide. In this case, it is not an option.

Zach

[jeffdon]

You know, I am running a carbed 2056 with 494 webcam, Jets are 65 idles, 125 mains, 200 air, F11 e-tubes. I went to a malllory with the grey springs, hoping for a big improvement over the 009. While the car does pull stronger, its still sluggish in the low end, and when i mash on it. WTF? Should I go up on my idles and mains? Thinking maybe i need to get a wide band O2 gauge to diagnose it, but having just popped 300 for the Mallory, I am not quite ready to shell out another bunch of cash.

[ChrisFoley]

I went to a malllory with the grey springs, hoping for a big improvement over the 009. While the car does pull stronger, its still sluggish in the low end, and when i mash on it. WTF?

You need to verify that the Mallory is set up properly, as I told Zach above.
Just putting in two grey springs isn't enough by any measure.
The other adjustments (and possible corrections) are even more important.
In fact, we don't even use Mallory's springs anymore when we set up a distributor.

[VaccaRabite]

I went to a malllory with the grey springs, hoping for a big improvement over the 009. While the car does pull stronger, its still sluggish in the low end, and when i mash on it. WTF?

You need to verify that the Mallory is set up properly, as I told Zach above.
Just putting in two grey springs isn't enough by any measure.
The other adjustments (and possible corrections) are even more important.
In fact, we don't even use Mallory's springs anymore when we set up a distributor.

What springs do you like to use? Is this something we can buy from you?

Zach

[ChrisFoley]

What springs do you like to use? Is this something we can buy from you?

We found a supplier with a spring that has the same tension properties as the Mallory grey springs, but the ends aren't quite the same. Therefore we have to customize the ends in order to use them. If we had to buy a spring kit every time we sell a distributor, the price would be even higher.
I'm not planning to offer them for resale any time soon.