85 Ranger 2.8 Issues

[jonremmers]

I picked this truck up a few years ago and work on it occasionally. Im trying to find out what out what my best option for ignition is! The previous owner put on a non feedback carb, but ripped out all the emissions. It keeps dying on me randomly and cant figure out why. Id like to just go to the duraspark upgrade but cant find a distributer anywhere. Are there any options to put in a hei distributor and get rid of the factory computer and be done with all that? what would my best option be not knowing all what the previous owner has taken out ?

 

[Shran]

Best option is a junkyard Duraspark distributor.
2nd option is a Bosch points style distributor, either with points or a Pertronix points eliminator. I believe these were found in '73 Mustang II's & Pintos... and in Ford cars from the UK... some other members here have ordered distributors from the UK on eBay and had good luck with that route
3rd option is rewiring the factory distributor for Duraspark or GM HEI but you will never have any timing advance, it will stay stuck at base timing but it'll at least run.

Unfortunately the aftermarket support for 2.8s has totally dried up. Probably very few & far between in running condition these days.

 

[JoshT]

This thread is one where distributor was ordered from UK. The like he provided shows in stock.

Distributor option

Sorry haven't been getting notifications. Didn't realize I had to watch my own thread.lol It's all good, I have the same issue and forget about threads I started sometimes. Few weeks/months later someone will quote me in a reply and I'll be like, where did that come from? Oh yeah! I remember...

www.therangerstation.com

If that weren't available, I'd probably try to go the pertronix route described above.

 

[jonremmers]

Thank You!