Long time since I updated this thread - then again its been a long time since I have done much to the truck. It has been running well, then in December on my way home from work it stumbled and shut off while traveling down the interstate. I had my laptop hooked to it when it shut off, it was like it lost ignition. The truck tach showed 0 rpm, laptop showed rpm still so I knew the coil had stopped firing. Did my due diligence and did some checking. Actually had spark but the truck would not start! After a little bit of messing around the truck started again and I made it home and parked it.
TFI failure or not I jumped off the distributor boat and went EDIS!
I bought a spare damper years ago for this, after searching Georgia for a competent shop I decided to mail the damper and trigger wheel to Simmons Balancing in Charleston SC. I used Simmons several times before - they did the EDIS damper for my MGB.
I didn't take many pictures so it is hard to see. I ground the cast timing tabs off the timing cover, welded two bosses onto the cover, tapped and helicoiled the bosses and mounted the crank sensor directly to the timing cover.
Was it worth the swap? Will take some driving to determine that. But the RPM signal is much more stable, the engine is smoother, and starts quicker.