Sorry guys, life ended up getting in the way and I was never able to put the finishing touches on the article back in January. We took y'all's advice and made sure to clean up our headrest posts, and I included that in the article as well. I hope this link doesn't break in a couple years, but if it ever ends up not working you can reference the technical articles section of the forum.
Hi!
Several months ago I went through a similar installation, and I came across many of the same questions as you.
1. Per 123Ignition specs, as long as the resistance doesn't drop below 1 Ohm you will be fine. For us, this means we are able to run a very hot red coil with no worry at all (no points to burn up!).
2. We did not change our vacuum line location, so we kept our vacuum line in the standard location off the intake manifold. There should be a little metal nipple sticking out of the manifold, and that's where you connect the other end of the line. I would recommend using the vacuum line (or in other words the vacuum advance, which means connecting the line), however, if you do not need/want to use the vacuum line, you are on the right train of thought. All you would have to do is zero the vacuum advance curve, and the distributor will not utilize the functionality. I do not think you would have to plug the hole from the functionality standpoint, but it would be worth it in order to keep dust/dirt out. In fact, you can connect the vacuum line and zero the vacuum curve, giving you ability to utilize vacuum advance with just a change of curve and keep dirt/dust out. We have several "sport" curves where we turn the functionality off (not useful in a race for example), and by the end of it I'm always happy to have my advance back.
Hope I could answer some of your questions, and I hope you enjoy your 123distributor! It was definitely one of our best purchases I have made for the car!
