Mallory ignition questions, Partial success! Options

[VaccaRabite]

My carbed 2056 uses a Mallory Unilite ignition. All summer long I have been fighting intermitant misses leading to the motor dieing at idle. After dicking with the carbs and adding fresh spark plugs, I am now moving to ignition.

So here is how my system is set up.

Bosch blue coil.
Mallory Unilite ignition.
The ignition is behind a resistor block.
MSD spiral wound plug wires.
NKG b5es plugs pregapped (one heat range hotter then stock as suggested in the resent spark plug thread) .

My tach is not dancing when I have a miss. The idle indicated drops as expected, no drama. So I don't think that the coil is grounding out or arcing.

As I understand the Mallory dizzy, it either works or it does not work, and there is not a lot of in-between.

My primary suspects are the plug wires. I am using the MSD spiral wound wires suggested for use with the Mallory, and I have only been using them this season.

Since you are not supposed to use the regular plug wires with a Mallory (as they can somehow cause the optical unit to burn out) buying replacement wires on a hunch is kinda expensive. Am I chasing my tail with this?

Also, I am using the stock gap. I think I am supposed to be able to use a wider gap with the Mallory, which will give better ignition. What kind of gap should I be shooting for? If it does turn out to be the plug wires as the problem area, should I go back to the stock heat range plugs, or stay with the hotter ranged plugs?

Oh, and for the "go back to FI" crowd, my motor is using a cam that would cause D Jet to commit suicide. In this case, it is not an option.

Zach

[VaccaRabite]

Is the blue coil the preferred coil for the mallory? Or should I need to buy the mallory coil? Would moving to the mallory coil give me a larger spark?

I am thinking I am going to pull the dizzy ad just make sure it was set right, since I was not the person who set it up i the first place.

Zach

[ChrisFoley]

Is the blue coil the preferred coil for the mallory? Or should I need to buy the mallory coil? Would moving to the mallory coil give me a larger spark?

I am thinking I am going to pull the dizzy ad just make sure it was set right, since I was not the person who set it up i the first place.

Zach

We like to use blue coils. There's nothing special about most Mallory coils.
There's no reason to pull the distributor to adjust the advance plate. As long as you can get the two nuts loose that hold the optical unit in position, you can do it all in place.
Measure the coil resistance and remove the ballast if you don't need it.

I doubt there's anything wrong with the wires, but a bad coil could cause the symptoms you describe.