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I bought a used unit on eBay for a pretty modest amount of money. Just for good measure I bought another one a little later to have as a backup, but I haven't had the slightest problem with it in 2+ years of use.
On my used unit I simply surfed the web and found a wiring diagram for it somewhere, and wired it up. Not many wires, not too hard to do. I think it should work fine with the original coil, although in my case I also swapped the distributor and coil at the same time for a dual point Mallory distributor body and a Mallory Voltmaster coil. I did that because the 40+ year old original coil was putting out a weak thready spark. And whether it was the fault of the coil or the points, at full throttle and higher rpms the engine had a sort of tentative, surging feel to it that the new ignition system cured.
Benefits as I see it:
1) Steadier timing - worn distributor shafts wobble, and the slightest wobble can have a pronounced affect on the timing. Previouly, at idle a timing light would show the timing bouncing around about +-5 degrees. Of course I also swapped my distrobutor to the Mallory one, but I hear the optical pickp is less affected than points are by shaft slop. Now checking the timing with a light shows it to be rock steady at idle.
2) Less need to reset timing - as soon as you put points in the little block that slides on the shaft starts wearing. 5000 miles later you need to regap and retime. With the optical system you can check it 5000 miles later and it is still exactly where you left it.
3) Better at high rpms - I don't know where to credit the improvement I saw - the advance curve of the Mallory dist (which I had to tweak slightly), the more powerful Voltmaster coil, or the electronic ignition. But that weak lightly surging feel mine had above ~5500 rpm was immediately cured. It now pulls hard up to 7000 rpm. (err - at least it did until the rod bearing spun - D'oh!)
Problems I can think of:
If it fizzles and you coast to a halt beside the road you aren't going to be able to tinker it back to life like you can a points&condensor distributor. I have an extra sensor in the glovebox because it is pretty small, and a spare controller in the garage. But this lack of tinkerability is offset in my mind by the fact that I've never had to tinker with it, whereas I have had to tinker with my various points equipped cars over the years. And I hear of people using them for much longer and farther than I have so far without problems.
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I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.
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