MSD Pro-Billet Cap & Rotor Wear????

[Jamo]

The MSD caps are crap. The POS graphite balls crumble at times, fall out other times and wear out quickly most of the time. I've done all the "fixes" (the grounding, the contact, the grease, double checking the box, the coil, etc.)...they are still crap. Making sure of the contact seemed to provide the best fix.

That being said...they are still crap. There's really no reason why they couldn't be made out of just metal. As Pat says, the Chevy caps (BB I'm pretty sure) work the best, but require changing over the wire connectors. I still use the POS MSD crap caps, but I change it out every 1,000 miles and always carry an extra one. Many folks have had the problem...seem to be different runs. You'll get a good one, and then the next one crumbles apart.

Not one of MSD's better ideas...and it makes it worse when they suggest all kinds of fixes under the hood.

Again, to summarize...they are crap.

[Tom Kirkham]

Proper distributer phasing is when the coil is firing when the rotor is lined up with the terminal on the cap. If the box is out of phase the coil will fire between the terminals. This will play havoc with the cap and rotor... On cars that have been phased properly I have not seen a problem. On cars that are phased backwards less than 1,000 miles for a new cap and rotor is not uncommon.

[priobe]

Tom,

I am still confused about the phasing of the dist. cap. If you move the cap to try to align the rotor to the cap wouldn't that change the timing?

Could someone please explain what is needed to align this.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Tom Kirkham

Proper distributer phasing is when the coil is firing when the rotor is lined up with the terminal on the cap. If the box is out of phase the coil will fire between the terminals. This will play havoc with the cap and rotor... On cars that have been phased properly I have not seen a problem. On cars that are phased backwards less than 1,000 miles for a new cap and rotor is not uncommon.

I guess to check this you need a clear distributor cap and a timing light?

Originally Posted by priobe

I am still confused about the phasing of the dist. cap. If you move the cap to try to align the rotor to the cap wouldn't that change the timing?

With the MSD distrib, it has a magnet, a ? rotor vane ( 8 vanes), and an induction coil. As the rotor vane moves past the induction coil it induces a current that the spark control box senses, and subsequently charges the coil for the spark release. To adjust the phasing, I'd guess you'd have to change the orientation of the rotor vanes with respect to the rotor.

[patrickt]

MSD has a new adjustable race rotor out for 2008 that gives you +-20 degrees. Here's a link: http://www.msd6al.com/new_products/8421.html

[PatBuckley]

When, on advice from MSD, I switched to the MSD Blaster 3 ("George Jetson") coil, my caps never had a problem.

[Tom Kirkham]

The two wires coming out of the distributer can be switched. This will change the polarity of the signal and screw up your distributors phasing.