Pertronix D134620 Flame-Thrower Black Cap Vacuum Advance Electronic Distributor with Ignitor Technology for Ford 351C

Anyone that has purchased this for the Cleveland with Ram air, have you had any issues with the retainer clips that secure the sensor plate to the distributor?
For the record, the cap hasn't been removed since it was installed in June of 2022. When I pulled the motor a couple months ago, all I did was remove the disty with cap intact. Today, when I opened my cap to swap the vacuum diaphragms, removing the dual vacuum for another disty, those two retainers were loose and fell somewhere in the garage floor. I couldn't find them, so I contacted Pertronix and they said there was no such part.
Sent them the pics and currently waiting on a response. Below is that pic and could use some advice. I've thought up a fix but....
just hesitant to use it because it involves modifying the mount and I'm not sure what that will do to all the "particulars" between Pertronix and me.

No need for reply unless you’ve had issues. After all the runaround to get the lost receipt from summit and a couple hours a back and forth with Pertronix, they told me Summit handles all their own returns if within the 2.5 year window.
Could’ve saved half the time. Arrggghhhh!!!!

Well, at least the new one is on the way. Since it will be out of warranty, unless by some miracle Summit restarts the clock…THUDD!!
sorry for the noise , fell off my chair just thinking that, anyhow, I’m going to look at a way to reinforce the sonic welds used.
You’d think that the method to secure something as critical to use as this is while also being subjected to some high rpm’s, it would be tougher.
I’m thinking of drilling and securing with epoxy or a screw would be better than a flimsy sonic weld mushroom.
I did find one of the pieces.

Just for clarity on the cause of failure.

Those look like bushings for the reluctor mount / advance plate to ride on. That plate pivots around the center of the distributor when vacuum is applied to the advance can.

Hemikiller said:

Those look like bushings for the reluctor mount / advance plate to ride on. That plate pivots around the center of the distributor when vacuum is applied to the advance can.

Click to expand...

Thank you, you're correct about the holes being for the bushing, although it's a piece of plastic that the entire VR plate rests on. There are three "pins" that protrude through the plate; one under the actual VR sensor and the two identified by the arrows in my pic. The one under the sensor as well as a ridge that encircles the shaft act as locating pins for the plate and the two are mushroomed as a sonic weld to secure the bushing to the plate.

The Pertronix folks explained this, all except the locating pin and ridge. I actually figured that part out when I was trying to see if the non-existent retainer clips had somehow attached to the magnetic lobe trigger on the shaft. As it turned out, I was mistaken and realized that, after removing the plate and thru emails with Pertronix that these weren't metal clips that I saw fall from the inside as I opened the cap.

For what it's worth, if you have this distributor, go ahead and give it a look before your 2.5-year warranty period has expired. This would be the entire cast type, stock looking item. If you purchased it from Summit, and the mushroom sonic welds on the plastic part have failed, the tell-tale sign will be the timing is thrown off (or worse), contact them and they'll send a replacement. Just note that there's a 30 day return window, or they will charge your original form a purchase again if it's not received in that time.

I'm not certain how Pertronix deals with things but I'm guessing in a fairly similar way. Although, the 2.5-year warranty period seems a bit odd, but can't remember the original specifics. The fact I found the issue was only because I was swapping vacuum diaphragms. Otherwise, it would have gone un-noticed with the motor being out of the car and completely disassembled. My warranty will have expired, in December of this year, and I would have been out of luck.

Again, for what it's worth, In the grand scheme of things, this is a sort of cheap and not in favorable terms of price. The part is not inexpensive if it ends up failing additional times and if any are outside the warranty period. I have maybe, 3500 miles of use and the cap hasn't been removed since the day it was installed. Point being, there's been no extra or unnecessary tinkering. If you're ever required to perform any work (like replacing a sensor), the manner they've affixed the VR plate and "bushing", can be damaged easily if it's not already damaged from RPM's and the plate shifting with the advance.

Hope this helps someone out there and while this is a huge malfunction for us performance enthusiasts, everyone was very pleasant to deal with, especially after I dropped the WTF-bomb in the initial conversation with Pertronix after it was explained this was an unrepairable issue. That's actually the point I wanted to make; this is something that two, donut-like, torsion clips or machine screws and sturdier plastic or even a couple nuts and bolts (or threaded studs attached to the plastic plate) would prove to be much more reliable for the application.

The worse I was leading to, is the plate lifting, from the unattached side, binding up on the shaft under extreme load and seizing the unit. It's the internals of the motor that would be concerning to me but, that's just my opinion. After having an oil pump shaft and gear seize, it's not a pretty sight. Not this car or motor. Just a past experience being shared.

I have had good luck mounting the Pertronix Flame-Thrower module in the stock distributor and purchasing a replacement vacuum advance plate and vacuum advance canister from Rock Auto. At that time these replacement parts cost around $30. each.