3rd MSD pick-up bad in as many years...

[machoneman]

Hah! My old MSD 7AL box takes the cake.

Purchased in 1978 for my r.e. dragster I sold before running it. Ran it on my '63 Galaxie box-top for about 12 years and 60K miles. Took it off, threw it on my '70 Mach 1 for 11 years but only 11,000 miles. It finally died in 2015 but only about 13 miles from home.

I bitched to MSD that I only got 37 years from their product!  LOL!

[Ted]

Is this the ready to run series MSD distgributor?  If so, it does prefer straight 12 volts to the module rather than running the factory resisted wiring from the ignition switch.  Resisted voltage does hurt the electronics.  On the flip side of this, I have had increasing issues in the last couple of years with the electronics in the Ready to Run series of MSD distributors failing early at an alarming rate.  Ted Eaton.

[gt350hr]

      In all the years (40 +) I have been using mag triggered ignitions , I have only had one pickup failure and that was a Chrysler style pickup.  The Ford Duraspark style has never failed me. MSD 6, 7 , older Hays Stinger , Crane are all ones I've used.

[cjshaker]

This isn't one of their Ready-To-Run series, just their billet style. I've never had problems with their distributors, just the pick-up, and only here in the last few years. I'm wondering if the Duraspark pick-up will work in the MSD. I've read where they're the same, but have never compared the 2 side by side to see if the Duraspark will physically fit in the MSD distributor. If so, I may try a regular Duraspark pick-up.

Oh well, I'll continue using it, but if the problem persists I'll be switching to a Duraspark distributor and be done with it.

As an amateur, I mess with some electronics. Mainly old style tube amplifiers and the like. I've noticed over the years that the quality of electronic parts has depreciated considerably, with most everything being made in China, Taiwan or some other overseas country. You can find, with some extensive searching, military or aviation grade electronic parts, which have MUCH closer tolerances than what's available to the general public.

[turbohunter]

As an amateur, I mess with some electronics. Mainly old style tube amplifiers and the like.

Off the thread topic and I apologize but it's interesting to me that like our vintage tin, old amps and receivers are part of our life also.
I'll start a thread in "off topic" so I don't screw yours up.

[thatdarncat]

... I'm wondering if the Duraspark pick-up will work in the MSD. I've read where they're the same, but have never compared the 2 side by side to see if the Duraspark will physically fit in the MSD distributor. If so, I may try a regular Duraspark pick-up.

The Duraspark pickup and the MSD pickup are not exactly the same, but similar. If I remember there was a slight difference in both how the bolts fastened to the distributor housing and more importantly the size of the holes that the bolts go through in the pickup magnet. We found this out when a pickup failed in my friends MSD distributor on his 351W race car while at the track a couple years ago. Someone else at the track had a spare Duraspark pickup, but we weren't able to make it fit with the limited stuff and time we had at the track between rounds. I have no doubt a person could adapt one with some effort. 

[fryedaddy]

HOLLEY I THINK IS THE SAME WAY,THEIR OLD STUFF SEEMS BETTER THAN THE NEW

[cjshaker]

Thanks for that info, Kevin.

[KMcCullah]

Kevin, I did the jumper test on the box the last time this happened. It was weird that I couldn't get a spark by jumping the wires, per MSD's instructions, but when I went to any ground, it sparked fine. That's what prompted me to buy another box and redo all my wiring so that everything went directly to the battery. Problem is, nothing changed. I still had no spark when jumping the wires, but it was fine when going to any other ground. I even made a short video of it then...

https://youtu.be/85PLiA8qIr0

I still can't explain this. My power comes straight from the battery, to a single pull/single throw switch, then straight to the box. Ground is straight to battery. The box lights and blinks like it's supposed to, according to their website. But their test does not work as it's supposed to. Go figure 

I watched that video a few times.... something is funky there. I did the same test with mine and it worked. I'd be curious to hear one of the MSD tech guys explain that one. Makes me wonder about that wire running to your box though. Have you checked the continuity of it? Are the plugs on each end in good shape? I'm sure MSD has tens of thousands of those little plugs in service, but they sure look cheesy to me. Like a bad connection waiting to happen.

[Riskit1234]

I was at dinner last night and was talking to an old racer friend and when I brought up MSD he rolled his eyes and said "that waste of a company""they have the market on there product and you really have to use them""doesn't matter if your Ford or Chevy your MSD will leave ya hanging"..
I had never heard that and thought it was the best of the best.  I have a pertronic billet with the flame thrower 3 I think and it was great till I needed to replace the cap.. the replacement was nothing like the original.  You leave it sit and you'll have enough condensation under the cap to fart stop the motor.  I pulled the 3 week old cap off and the pick ups where green from moisture.

[Barry_R]

With literally hundreds having run I have had very, very few failed MSD parts in the shop.  But when they do go bad it's without rhyme nor reason.  I have had units that looked like they were pulled form the bottom of a lake work great and had a brand new one fail in minutes.  I had a new high dollar coil cost 100 horsepower and had a dented and rusted swap meet canister one perform great.  I think I might still have an MSD7 from the 1980s in my car right now...

[FElony]

So what you all are saying here is that MSD is, of late, no more reliable than Pro Comp, the company they sued for copying their junk in the first place. OK, gotcha.

[Barry_R]

So what you all are saying here is that MSD is, of late, no more reliable than Pro Comp, the company they sued for copying their junk in the first place. OK, gotcha.

A couple failures out of hundreds is not terrible in my experience.  The ProComp failure rate is more like hundreds out of hundreds.  I swear that some of that stuff is broken during packaging as part of the assembly process.

[thatdarncat]

A lot of the Procomp stuff isn't even usable from the start, so not comparable. The amount of MSD stuff out there is staggering, and like most things, we hear about the issues more than the non-issues, but it does bare watching if a trend is starting.

[FElony]

So what you all are saying here is that MSD is, of late, no more reliable than Pro Comp, the company they sued for copying their junk in the first place. OK, gotcha.

A couple failures out of hundreds is not terrible in my experience.  The ProComp failure rate is more like hundreds out of hundreds.  I swear that some of that stuff is broken during packaging as part of the assembly process.

Damn Aussies, always chuggin' Fosters on the job. As for me, I'll stick to Accel hi-tension points. Over 8000 rpm with no misfires. Can't beat that with your newfangled modules. Sorta like a vacuum tube versus digital, you know what I mean?