I've had Crane for about 8 years and cannot complain...except....I'm changing to Pertronix next week. The Crane unit works but the pertronix is just so damn small and simple. Crane has a nice looking "module" to mount to the firewall and a 3 wire plug that you thread through the hole in the distributor before you put the plug on. But I decided I needed to change out the distributor (nothing else to do?) because of a "flutter" around 2500 rpm. Thought it was the springs or the weights. Anyway, put it back in and -- no start! Must be me. Jiggle and shake all the connections. No Start. Okay, must have touched something else. Find other distributor with points, no start. Put in Crane... Start! Let it warm up for 3-5 minutes and , while just looking at the motor, it STOPPED! No Start. No Start. UGH! Try again... Start. Start. Okay. Drive for 15 minutes on highway and surface....sputter stop. Open bonnet...looks OK....try again... Start! Drive home and get a working points distributor and set it up including timing and place in trunk..always be ready. Order pertronix on Ebay and include new coil....get extra set. Next day, drive 200 miles without a miss.
Nothing to complain about but I use this car for transportation and cannot be stuck on the side of the road. I've had Pertronix on my 1800ES for 5 years and 75K miles and I fried 2 sets with the wrong coil (need low resistance 3 amp)but the principle of magnetic triggering is right for me (simple).