4 cyl Prestolite to Duraspark

[StarquestMan]

I posted a thread earlier asking about replacing the stock ignition in my brothers 1980 Scout II with a newer more reliable ignition system in this thread:

http://forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/IH-parts-america-product-questions/12516-no-pertronix-4-cyl-pertronics-dizzy.html

After thinking it over we decided that we wanted to try converting to the Ford duraspark ignition due to all of the good stuff ive read about it and the ease of replacing/testing bad modules. I am however wondering if it is possible since its a 4 cylinder and not the more common 8 that I am always seeing it done to? Some of the things ive been thinking of/concerned with:

-does the dizzy need to be swapped for the duraspark unit? (if so I dont know if they make one thats 4 cylinder)
-the duraspark system seems to be used by v8 and maybe v6 engines so will it fire/trigger properly with a 4 cylinder dizzy since the armature lobes on v6 and v8 engines have a much different profile from a 4 cylinder
-will the pickup assembly on the prestolite dizzy be able to trigger the duraspark module?
-do I need a duraspark coil or is the stock style ok?

Im thinking that what I will need to get for the conversion to work will be:

-duraspark module
-a partial harness with the 3 and 4 pin connector to connect to the duraspark module and enough wire to go from the firewall (where the box will mount) to the dizzy pickup and coil
-a bracket to mount the module to the firewall (my brother can fab one up for that)

so does this all sound right or am I missing something? My basic plan was to remove the prestolite doughnut inside the dizzy and simply use the oe pickup coil to trigger a duraspark system which would drive the stock style coil if this is correct? Which sould cost roughly 5-15 bucks for the wiring and 20-30 for the module. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[StarquestMan]

Well I decided to go ahead and try my plan to see if it would work and thought I would post what I have so far since there seems to be hardly any info for us oddballs with the prestolite dizzys and probably even less for the people with the 4cyl. I went ahead and got a harness with all the pigtails and the ignitor out of a 76 Ford pickup. I used the prestolite pickup and back plate and desoldered the prestolite dougnut shaped igniter from it and used the Ford dizzy pigtail and soldered the purple and orange wires to the two black wires coming from the prestolite pickup coil and grounded the black wire from the Ford pigtail to the back plate like it was originaly on the Ford dizzy. I then temporarily hooked up the power and coil to the duraspark module going from a Ford diagram online however I did leave the white "start" lead hanging since the Scout does not have one for the prestolite module so I will need to add one in later. From what ive read this lead simply advances or retards the timing (I forget which) for easier starting. I pulled the coil lead from the dizzy and stuck a spark plug in and grounded it to the body. I then turned the engine over to check for spark but got nothing. I did test the coil and module and they do bolth test fine. So im going to next try reversing the orange and purple wires in the dizzy to see if maybe the coil is simply out of phase with the signal rotor or something. If that doesn't work it May just mean that the tiny prestolite coil just doesn't give a large enough pulse to trigger the Ford module and I May just have to do something similar to the popular Holley style distributor mod and shoehorn in a Ford pickup somehow and simply have the whole durraspark system. I will try to keep all you poor and ignored prestolite or 4 cylinder guys (probably like 5 total) informed if it helps anyone

 

[StarquestMan]

Well let me just type up an update again since this site keeps asking me to login (after I already did) and refresh the page (eraising all my work) after typing up an update

anyway I just swapped the wires from the prestolite pickup assembly but no luck. So it looks like I will need to get a duraspark pickup coil and possibly a reluctor (since it has a different profile than the prestolite reluctor) from a Ford 2.3 liter distributor since the tiny prestolite coil wont give the duraspark unit a large enough voltage spike to ground the coil and produce a spark.