GMC V-6 ignition question

[George Bongert]

Originally Posted by Funky61

This was on a 62 I saw and my first time seeing one. It has a button for conventional or CDI. I remember Heath Kits but I thought they just did radios.

Greetings Funky!

I have to admit, this is the first time I've seen a Heath Kit. From what I'm seeing, it looks to be a bit more complicated to install as opposed to the simplicity of a Pertronix conversion.

[bigblockv6]

The Heathkit Capacitive Discharge appears to be the same unit sold as the Delta Mark 10. We put one in the 68 GMC back in 1974, it basically piggy backs on the the ignition coil as I do recall and it doesn't do away with the points. Basically its the predecessor to the MSD6AL. Ran the Delta box for 11 years, about 5 years after installing it my father was driving the truck and it went dead on him, the ignition coil had be replaced. After the truck was handed down to me, some 3 years later I noticed the tach needle bouncing around and not reading accurately, I went so far as to buy a new Factory Tach and still no difference until I disconnected the Delta box to reveal another dead coil. I can assume this Capacitive Discharge box was blowing coils but Ironically after it blew the coil it just did the job as a coil and kept the engine running just fine but was throwing off my Tach, I removed it for good and put in a new coil with the intentions of switching to a true Breakerless electronic ignition so then came the Buick HEI conversion and that was the best thing next to the Holley 500 upgrade.

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by George Bongert

Greetings Funky!

I have to admit, this is the first time I've seen a Heath Kit. From what I'm seeing, it looks to be a bit more complicated to install as opposed to the simplicity of a Pertronix conversion.

I put one of those Heathkit CDI units together back in the '70s and installed it on one of my trucks. The big advantage as far as I was concerned was that it reduced the current across the ignition points to a small fraction of normal, so that points would theoretically last "forever".

[BobShing]

Here's the history of Heathkit, from Wikipedia. I had a friend who built their color TV, back in the day...
Heathkit manufactured electronic kits from 1947 until 1992. After closing that business, the Heath Company continued with its products for education, and motion-sensor lighting controls. The lighting control business was sold around 2000. The company announced in 2011 that they were reentering the kit business after a 20-year hiatus but then filed for bankruptcy in 2012,[1] and under new ownership began restructuring in 2013. As of 2019, the company has a live website with newly-designed products, services, vintage kits, and replacement parts for sale.[2]