My H code conversion

I have a 73 XR7 convertible H code 2V. I bought this car in 1975 and drove it stock until the early to mid 80’s when I started to play around with the engine. I had a bunch of spare parts from a 71 Mustang I once had so I started digging out parts. I had a set of 71 Four barrel closed chambered heads I put on the car. I recamed the car with a performance cam but still very streetable. Added a Mallory dual point dist. and a Carter AFB. I also had a Ford top loader that I replaced the FMX tranny with and replaced the rear end with a 3:25 limited slip. It was a very decent running car for its time. I sold the car in 1990 and when I bought it back a couple of months ago, I am planning on getting rid of the dual point and replace it with a Mallory Unilite.

Great story and Cougar. Not many people can get back the same car they sold 30 years earlier.

Steven

It’s great to hear the intervening owners left your work alone!

What cast valve covers are those - don’t tell me, real Ford from a Boss?

What a great story and cool 4 speed 4 barrel drop top. We had one much like it, AT and 2 barrel, yellow with a white interior, that used to come to the shop when I was young. Thought it was the coolest cruiser around

I am a Unilite fan, but highly recommend if you use one, to do one of two things

1 -Use it to trigger an MSD or equiv CD box
2 - If not, after you run it for a while to recharge the battery, check voltage at the positive side of the coil and do whatever you can to keep it at 13V or under

The Unilite is incredibly reliable, but if the pos side of the coil exceeds about 13 volts, engine running, when the Unilite triggers, the rush to ground through the distributor can burn it out from the ground side and send you walking. The stock Ford resistor wire usually has voltage creep up past 13.0 as the battery charges. Easy enough to add a ballast resistor, but the real fix is adding a CD box as then the Unilte runs on extremely low voltage and the box does all the coil work.

They sell surge protectors for the LED light, but that’s not what fails on a Unilite, they can handle 14.5+ voltage. Its all on the backside.

As Paul Harvey would say here’s the rest of the story. I sold the car to a woman, after I had sold it to her she said I think I would had rather the car had an automatic instead of the manual transmission. I promptly let the woman know that I would gladly change out the transmission if she so desired. I had a 72 or 73 model hardtop parts car with a good FMX in it and everything I needed to complete the swap including all linkage and radiator with the transmission cooling tank. I was wanting to keep the four speed anyway and when she opened the door and said what she did, it became a no brainier. I did leave the clutch pedal in the car but shoved it up against the firewall where it was out of the way. The toploader is now in my 64 Falcon Sprint convertible. Not that I am a person with great foresight but I never throw anything car related away. After all these years I still have the shifter with all the linkage, bell housing, Z-bar and everything to put a four speed back in the car. I have three toploaders under a work bench one of which is a small block transmission that I will rebuild and install in the car.

The woman I had sold the car to never changed anything from the way I had it. She drove the car about six years and sold it to the man I bought it from. He had bought the car and had planned to give it to his grandson but apparently the grandson was some what spoiled and didn’t want the car but rather wanted a new car so he parked in his tractor barn and never drove the car except on rare occasions, he said he doubted that he put over a hundred miles on the car. He said the last time he drove the car was in year 2,000. I don’t remember how many miles the car had on it when I sold it but I doubt it had over fifteen to twenty thousand miles more than when I sold it. Everything was just as it was when I sold the car.

About the valve covers. You are correct, they are the 351 Boss valve covers. I bought them from the local Ford dealer in the 80’s

I had planned to seek some advice on the Unilite distributor. I will be taking your advice on the MSD box.

I have has great luck with Mallory Unilites running on the ballast resistor wire (7 to 8 volts) on these era Fords. Great Dizzy and dead dependable. I have hooked up many to an MSD box and the system works great. You will need a tach adaptor if you have a stock tach. When you get ready, I can step you through the process.

Rob

Thanks for the heads up Rob. I am at my Colorado home for the summer but I will be back in Texas by October. I will let you know when I get back and am ready to tackle the Unilite conversion. I not really up on these electronic ignitions. I converted my 64 Falcon Sprint to a Dura Spark II system off of a late 70’s ford. It’s a totally stock unit but it sure beats change points plus its a very dependable system.

Thanks for the heads up Rob. I am at my Colorado home for the summer but I will be back in Texas by October. I will let you know when I get back and am ready to tackle the Unilite conversion. I not really up on these electronic ignitions. I converted my 64 Falcon Sprint to a Dura Spark II system off of a late 70’s ford. It’s a totally stock unit but it sure beats change points plus its a very dependable system.

Nothing beats making period stuff work, Bravo. I believe (Mr. Campbell or you can confirm) the Unilite shown is a bit bigger-diameter cap than the nicely made but tiny diameter Mallory dual points which were very hard to set up.

This is a very, very cool story!

I agree completely, but have also walked home until I learned to check the voltage at the positive side of the coil. I can’t take credit for it, Faron Rhoads, distributor guy, told me to do it in 2002 when I lost one on my own car and I never had another issue. That car was at about 13.4 after the battery charged, but would check lower when I first started it. Ironically if you read the instructions it says so too, but not 100% clear until you know what they are saying. Often the resistor wire doesn’t resist as much as it should. Of course with the MSD it doesn’t apply at all

Additionally, if using a conversion, or replacing a module, the Accel points eliminator is the same piece, per Mallory employees, just cheaper. I have used them on a couple of 500+ HP FEs and they are stable and never miss a beat