ideas on why it broke down???

[MrMagoo]

Hey every one. I have my MSD box under my dash, and it has never failed in 5 years. so maybe that is a good place for it. The only two times I have ever been stuck because of an ignition problem it has been the distributor gears, once the pin and once the teeth being stripped. MSD distributors are really prone to corrosion under the cap, and I once had a no-start where that was the problem (didn't get stuck that time, just scraped off the crud). I have had an MSD dist with a mechanical advance that got rust in the advance mechanism as well, I car started but wasn't running well. Took me a while to figure that one out.

If you do the jumper test (jump the purple and green wired of the dist as described above) and you get spark, then I would imagine it HAS to be the distributor. Only other possibility is fuel or carb. If you have an electric pump, check the fuel pressure. Maybe check carb floats (stuck float) etc.

I have heard stories about bad MSD units. My new policy is that I carry around a small package containing a spare distributor, MSD box, and coil on long trips. Doesn't take up much room and it's good insurance. I check the spare dist for corrosion once in a while. I think the most important part of that package is the spare distributor.

As has been mentioned, going for ultimate simplicity has it's advantages. For those out there who have had bad MSD experiences, I have had some people recommend a Pertronix distributor to me, with a built in HEI ignition module. One wire to ignition hot, hook up the coil and that's it. They say that the multi spark isn't that beneficial, all you need is the capacitive discharge for higher voltage. I decided to stick with the MSD world.