Electronic ignition swap?

Hey all,
I am in the middle of swapping out my dead 304 for a new one, and I noticed that the new engine came with the newer electronic distributer. It also has the control box. Is there a quick and dirty way to hook this up? It looks for all the world like two of the four wires go to the ballast resistor (with one of the wires having an extra connector), one goes to the distributer, but I don't know where the last one goes. Ground? Looks like it has a fusible link, though.
Having asked that, is the electronic ignition better? Or should I stick to the points?
Any ideas?

 

Which ignition - Prestolite or Duraspark? The Prestolite distributor has a plastic vacuum can, otherwise it's Duraspark.

Don't bother if it's Prestolite. A Duraspark conversion is worthwhile. Search for 'TFI Conversion' or 'Duraspark' - lots of links.

 

This thing has a funky "dual diaphragm" looking vacuum advance. It IS plastic, though.

 

I would do whatecer necessary to get rid of points.

 

Mmm. Well, the Prestolite setup is not very reliable (according to reputation) and it doesn't have an easy upgrade path. The Duraspark (Motorcraft) distributor from a '78 or later AMC V8 drops in, can be used with the HE Ford TFI coil, cap, rotor and wires, and can use either the Motorcraft module or the GM HEI module (fenderwell mounted on a heat sink). Look for a (Grand) Wagoneer at the pick-your-part and grab the distributor, module and harness, or buy a reman distributor at your FLAPS and use the GM module. Cheap upgrade.

 

This site http://www.geocities.com/cantwait_forviolence/cj_tfi.html has a lot of articles, including this one on the TFI(Duraspark)-HEI hybrid http://bbs.off-road.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=1369236 - this also shows a good picture of the Presotolite distributor.

 

Thanks, all! I ended up putting the points distributer back in. Mostly because it was handy, and I already installed all new components in it. The prestolite distributer had a lot of rust and stuff in it, too. Maybe sometime I will try it out.