Dumb question but I'm curious
- Thread starter Fishfan
- Start date
Justin Plant
Well-Known Member
Holds the plug wires down
Thanks. So just goes on top and screw in?
Loadrunner
Active Member
HEI style cap terminals push into the holes and stay. Looks like it's held down by two screws.
RemCharger
Active Member
Yes. It's not necessary though.
Loadrunner
Active Member
Makes troubleshooting by pulling plug wires off the cap impossible, a big Chevy improvement.
In the trade back then, they warned technicians via pamphlets that HEI was killing several technicians a year.
Don't get zapped by high powered ignitions, they can stop your heart.
Keep one hand in your pocket while fiddling about with ignition wires with engine running, not on the fender.
bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
If you're currently shopping for ignition stuff, I'd recommend staying away from MSD. I'm currently fighting with an MSD system on a customer's car that was installed by his brother, and it's had multiple part failures in less than a few hundred miles. Much of what they sell is made in China, and it just doesn't seem to hold up very well.
Jeff
Jeff
68PK21 440.6bbl
Old Man with a Hat
It's so they can stick their logo on top of the dizzy for the WOW factor at the 'Cars & Coffee' events.
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gus chiggins
New Member
I just use the 1970 electronic ignition in my 67 belvedere. I'm kind of wary of aftermarket parts that "bolt right in".
68PK21 440.6bbl
Old Man with a Hat
The old vintage Mallory distributers were cooler.
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Loadrunner
Active Member
You can still buy Packard 440, the finest spark plug wire ever made.
I still have the original style Autolite Dual Point on the Max.
Loadrunner
Active Member
Gut pics of the ADL?
Mechanic at the shop installed one of these MSD E-curve distributors for me about 5 years ago. It failed within a couple of months but was under warranty so they replaced it. Recently I had the engine apart (doing a lot more of the work myself these days) and when I reassembled everything, car wouldn't start. By process of elimination I determined the distributor was fried. I shipped it to MSD and they repaired it for $140 (new unit is $611). When they sent it back, they sent one of these hold-downs with it. Thus my question. My mechanic never installed it. My ACCEL spark plug wires have big boots on them that would make that thing pop up too much. Gonna leave it off.
mopar preferred
Member
The original GM wires, and it looks like the MSD wires, have a tab, if you will, on the boot that pops into those holes in the cover to lock the wires into position.
Google MSD plug wires, you'll see what I mean.
Google MSD plug wires, you'll see what I mean.
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Loadrunner
Active Member
It's cutting edge technology that Chevy unveiled in 1974, standard on all GM products by 1975.
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