Point Gap

As to the eletronic conversions? They work great when they work - and if they burn out you're screwed unless you saved your old parts - or - are willing to wait. That because you're not going to find repair parts locally.

One case in point - reality-based. I had to pick up a 1970 MGB and drive it 400 miles. The engine was recently rebuilt, several mods made - including removal of the Lucas breaker-point ignition. A breakerless kit was put in, using a magnetic pickup and reluctor wheel, a high energy spark amplifier, etc. Worked fine. Not Petronix as far as I know - but that doesn't matter much.
I've seen breakerless kits, come and go for 40 years - under many brand-names. I got half-way home - and the car died - right in the middle of the Interstate. No spark. Dead as a doornail and no replacement parts available anywhere nearby. I checked the only things I could - power getting to the module, no wires broken, etc. It was dead. Well, the car was loaded with spare parts - and I rumaged through and found the old breaker-plate with the points still on it, etc. That was lucky. Within half-and-hour, I installed the old parts, closed the spark-plug gaps down to .030", eliminated the electronic conversion, and drove the rest of the way home. Not urban legend - fact.

Another example. We camp on a island every year for two weeks - several miles from shore-land. Boat-access only (obviously). My 1970 outboard quit out in the middle of the lake. Engine is a 105 horse Chrysler. It had been updated with an electronic breakerless conversion along with a capacitive-discharge amplifier. This was the second time it failed - but the last time it happened when docked. I was dead in the water. But, since the last failure, I had - in my on-board tool box, the original breaker-plate, points, condenser, and a standard 12 volt ignition coil. I also had an extra little 2 horse outboard, but it could not overcome the wind. Also had a set of four standard spark plugs - since the high-energy system used special plugs with no ground-electrodes and a huge gap. Working on the water, I got it going with the old parts- and have used it that way ever since. That was 20 years ago - and the boat runs ever bit as well with the old breaker-point system.

In regard to old tractors you hear "sputtering" from igntion systems that need service? So? It's pretty easy to do and in tractors, those parts last a long, long time. My Ford 4000 backhoe has them, so does my Deere 1010, four of my Case Vacs and DCs, so does my Cletrac OC3, and so do several of my Stihl chainsaws. None of them "sputter" as you put it, and I rarely have to do anything, to any of them. Sometimes if a machine has sat all winter, and I go to start it in the spring, I have to pull the cap and scrape the oxidation off the points - and make sure they are opening and closing. Pretty easy to do. One more point. I have two dealers in my area that sell Petronix systems. I checked with both, and asked if they stock any spare parts - in case of a failure. The answer from both was "no."