Quality parts

J

Jim

Senior Member
I have a 1957 mercury with a 312 ci.engine. Can anyone direct me to a source for usa made ignition parts. I'm sick and tired of all this Chinese crap.Thanks in advance.
 
Motorcraft contracts from the lowest bidder, just like their competition. Most any OE replacement Ford part that Motorcraft sells today that is 10 years old or more is produced overseas. A good example is the cooling fan for a 2006 and later Crown Vic The original Motorcraft fan was produced in the US. The original Motorcraft control module for the fan was made in France. Today, both pieces are produced in China. Take a look at Motorcraft OE rotors for a 2013 thru 2019 Interceptor Utility (Explorer) they are also Chinese
 
This goes not just for automotive electrical parts, but also for home/kitchen appliance, radio/stereo equipment, portable heater, you name it. They are all made in China. Every electrical control switch of any type I have ever had that was made in China failed very quickly. Both my portable electric heater on/off switches have been bypassed. My Chinese made table radio has a bad AM/FM selector switch and the on/off switch has a burned out aux contact for the dial pilot light. I've had two automatic drip coffeemakers go bad due to bad control switches. The manufacturers change the model designs very quickly so you can't just buy replacement parts. But if you did, it would be that same sub-standard switch.
I have had contacts actually come off the arm on a set of ignition points.
I have gotten to the point that I will drill out the rivets of a '55 Ford headlight switch and file the contacts, then re-assemble with machine screws and nuts rather than but a repro switch from them with a low life expectancy.
The American people got royally hosed when Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and CAFTA. This guy we got now (Trump) may be turning that around. I hope so. I want American quality when I fork over cash.
 
Echlin/Standard Motor Parts, available at NAPA stores may still have some USA stuff available. A lot of this stuff is manufactured down in Mexico too. The Echlin brand was the last good one before being purchased by Standard Motor Parts. So far, their stuff is still usable but I don't know how long that may last. Condensers and breaker points have become a niche business that Corporations don't want to mess with since there is no market for the mass production of it.
 
Because of all the crap components being made now is the reason I have a Mallory Unilite distributer in my 3 hot rods. 25 years on one of them without an issue
 
From what I was told,(?) they are no longer making points with tungsten. They are using some supposedly "equal" metal. Whatever. If you insist in still using points, you must find some old stock, like at least 10 years old. It's disappearing fast. The easy fix is a Pertronics conversion. Many are doing it with good results. If I were to do it, I still would carry a spare in the glove box.
As for Mallory guy, the Unilite has always had a bad reputation. You must be lucky. Also Mallory has been bought out by MSD, which is also using chinese made stuff, and their reputation is suffering as well. They also have issues with chinese copies being made, and sold as the real product. And again, I was told when MSD purchased Mallory, they supposedly scrapped all of the inventory for previous Mallory.
All of our families older Fords I have converted to Duraspark, which is now rapidly getting harder to find parts for also. Thankfully, they are very dependable.
 
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packrat5 said:
From what I was told,(?) they are no longer making points with tungsten. They are using some supposedly "equal" metal. Whatever. If you insist in still using points, you must find some old stock, like at least 10 years old. It's disappearing fast.
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391528


Who are they?

MOTORCRAFT uses tungsten in their points sets.
 

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I have used a Pertonix for years with no problem. The car is now gone, but I would not hesitate to use those parts again. If the distributor is in good shape, go for it. Do not expect anyones electronic conversion to mask a poor distributor. Buy the best Pertronix they offer, and use their 40,000 volt coil as well.
 
Daves55.......I also have had a set of points come off the arm and leave me dead in the water. I now use a Pertronix set up in my avatar 302 and going on 4 yrs with no issues.
 
I have used an ACCEL 2020 Points Eliminator Kit in several Y blocks I have owned and repaired for friends over the years and have had "0" issues with them.
 
50fordcoupeman said:
Daves55.......I also have had a set of points come off the arm and leave me dead in the water. I now use a Pertronix set up in my avatar 302 and going on 4 yrs with no issues.
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I've had the proper 6-volt pertronix conversion in my '55 Sedan and it quickly went dead. Tore it out, went back to the old points and condenser and she's been runnin like a mad dog ever since.
I've had the 12-volt version pertronix conversion in my '55 Courier 223 distributor. It didn't last long either. Been runnin great ever since I put points & condenser back in.
That was back when they charged $110 per unit. So I wasted $220, thinking that I was gonna have a maintenance-free ignition.
I've got several sets of new point/condenser/rotor sets stored up. I'm sure there will be some leftover by the time I'm dead.
Aint messin with no more modern conversions for anything.
Ummm, that goes for the 6v clock quartz conversion too. Big waste of money there. Wonderful quartz conversion should last a lifetime, but the 12-to-6 volt resistor/polarity inverter went bad after a few months. Then they wanted another $100+ to fix that. Forget it.
I had a different outfit rebuild the original 6-volt electric Westclox for my '55 Sedan. Costed around $350.00 for that.
Wouldn't have done that, but my pocket watch has turned to junk too. Gotta have somethin to tell time when your 150 miles from home.
 
Lets face it - all the manufacturers that make auto parts have gone to China for production. This included old time companies like MOOG. The only hope is that they have some decent quality control, but it doesn't look good. Rubber parts are crap and wear out in a very short time. It's all corporate greed
 
paul2748 said:
Lets face it - all the manufacturers that make auto parts have gone to China for production. This included old time companies like MOOG. The only hope is that they have some decent quality control, but it doesn't look good. Rubber parts are crap and wear out in a very short time. It's all corporate greed
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Agree 2748. I went thru 4 NAPA coils to get one that finally worked. Could drive a guy nuts !!
 
Had trouble with replacing the turn signal switch on my Ranch Wagon....you shouldn’t have to repair a brand new switch but I did. Chinese made.
 
It's all quality control. iPhones and the like are all made in foreign countries but the quality control parameters are obviously high. Apple would go out of business if they manufactured iPhones like some of these parts suppliers manufacture the items we consume.

Even back in 55/56 you could see that Ford was getting parts from foreign countries, but the expectations of fit, finish, and overall performance of said part was higher than what we have now. As I recall, when removing a few original parts I believe some were made in Germany and others in Mexico? even back then... anyone know otherwise?
 
I'm not a big fan of Petronix. I also own a 64 Land Rover, installed a Petronix, it went dead within the first year, unfortunately outside of Death Valley, 100 miles from anything. Wife was freaking out, but I carried everything to convert it back. Just not something you want to do out in the bush. Getting on a Rover blog, Petronix has a real bad reputation with Rover owners.
 
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