I run a pertronix because you can’t get condensers that are worth a **** anymore. I’ve daily driven cars that are all mechanical, my current set up is more reliable than any of them ever were.
I daily drove a ‘56 Austin Healey 100 for years. Dual point distributor. Ran fine for a long time, then a condenser went bad. And over the next several months, I went through a literal CASE of new condensers. They’d fail when they got hot due to lousy internal insulation. Cold they’d all test fine. It got to the point that I could change the condenser, burnish the points and re gap everything on the side of the freeway in LA with cars whizzing by at 90 mph before the freeway patrol could find me to tow me. Then one day I found a decent condenser again and like magic it was ok. But carrying the spare parts wasn’t a guarantee, sure you could change them, but they’d all test fine cold and **** the bed when they heat soaked.
I run pertronix units on several of my cars and have for years without issues. I may have just fried my first one in like a decade of using several. You can carry an extra pertronix unit in your glovebox too, and they’re easier to change out. Plus, there’s only one part to fail. With points, you have the points, the condenser, and the ballast that can all fail. And they do, and the replacement ones you buy now fail more frequently than the old stuff ever did.
The only alternators I’ve replaced on ANY car I’ve ever had were OE Mopar alternators. Although to be fair most were replaced because of their abysmal performance, not actual failures. But if the headlights won’t stay on at idle because the windshield wipers and heater are going that’s not a daily driver.
That does not include the generator I had to replace on my Healey when the rear bushing died, but that was an open bushing that required periodic lubrication, so different technology there.
