MSD yay or nay

Do you like MSD products?

  • yes

    Votes: 42 72.4%

  • no

    Votes: 16 27.6%
  • Total voters
    58
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Woodys_Cuda

Woodys_Cuda

Ontario, Canada
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Okay this one is for Rusty. lol. (disclaimer) I am not an employee or have any friends, family working there. I'm going against my better judgement in posting this poll.:lol:
 
Crane Hi-6 gets my vote. I like the MSD distributors okay, though...
 
Depends... do you enjoy putting on a one man car show on the side of the road? Then MSD is for you :)

P.S. i should clarify though.. i have used their boxes and stuff in the past without issue. but like full ignition on a street care i need to depend on.. never will happen.. too many friends did it and ended up needing to be saved. I have also used a stock setup (excpet on my new setup which will be pertronix which is making me nervous already)
 
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Depends on your ultimate needs and/or goals. Some of the capabilites/equipment available with MSD are very useful or even necessary for some builds; ie retard units, rev limiters, and the like. For most street builds I still like the Chrysler electronics.
Not a fan of the RTR stuff or the (sole source) availability of service parts.
And the MSD knockoffs are another issue entirely!
It's kinda like asking if Holley or Carter/Edelbrock is the best carburetor- depends what you're after and how big a can of worms you want to open...
 
I voted yes, because I do like their products, but I’ve never run their complete ignition system before. Too many stories of failures from respected peers has kept me from trying them.

But their coils/wires have served me well in the past.
 
Years ago I had a MSD box with the Chrysler plug in. Ran fine for a while, except for the tach, then the engine was down on power for no reason, so I swapped the Chrome box back on and the car ran so much better all around. It's still working on the 66 Formula S today, probably 40 years later. Don't fix something that is not broke.
 
I have an older MSD 7AL2 and the matching billet distributor, along with a backup for each. The newer MSD stuff is junk, or so I've heard. Until the stuff I have craps the bed, I'll stay with it.
 
Just about every car at the local circle track with an MSD installed actually has two, both fully wired. One is a backup. Flip a switch and you're back in it. That could be interpreted as either a reliability issue, or as "It works so well we won't run without one." The interpretation is subjective. Some people swear by it, others swear at it.

For me, it comes down to availability. I prefer parts I can order at any parts store with reasonable expectation that I'd have it the next day. While that's not a'tall true of my '69 Valiant, it's not intended for road trips either. My other cars will be occasional distance runners, so the shorter I can make any unscheduled stops, the better. I don't want to spend two days at a strip motel in Asswarsh, KS waiting for some expensive, non-substitutable gee-whiz part to ship.
 
Demonracer said:
I have an older MSD 7AL2 and the matching billet distributor, along with a backup for each. The newer MSD stuff is junk, or so I've heard. Until the stuff I have craps the bed, I'll stay with it.
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They had a really BAD issue of their distributors rusting under the cap several years ago and I don't know if they ever addressed it or not. You'd take the cap off and the whole guts would be rusted to hell and back.
 
I heard a lot of trash talk about MSD over the years. About 4 years ago, I put a complete (6AL box, non-vacuum distributor, coil and plug wires) MSD system on my car. I LOVE it. I went from cranking for several seconds to instantaneous starts. The idle and throttle response is better also. No matter what product you talk about, there are always going to be negative comments about it, but I love my MSD system.
 
I have been running 6AL's exclusively since the early 90's and only had one failure. That failure was a 70's vintage 6C that finally gave up a couple years ago.
Just keep in mind that anything electronic can fail at any moment. I always throw a spare in the trunk if im going on a long drive. I do like the fact that the new boxes have plugs so it can be swapped in a few minutes.
For reliability it is also hard to beat the factory electronic ignition. But yeah, spare module in the glove box. If you have a spare you will probably never need it.
 
harrisonm said:
I heard a lot of trash talk about MSD over the years. About 4 years ago, I put a complete (6AL box, non-vacuum distributor, coil and plug wires) MSD system on my car. I LOVE it. I went from cranking for several seconds to instantaneous starts. The idle and throttle response is better also. No matter what product you talk about, there are always going to be negative comments about it, but I love my MSD system.
Click to expand...
That’s what happened every time I put in a MSD - THEN…..

It died on me. Each and everyone of them except my first one which is still in use but owned by someone else. But me s skip the one and only one that has actually worked as intended and kept on going for decades now and let’s talk about the 12 or 13 others that have died on me and there supposedly rebuilt replacements that MSD sent me under warranty.

They all died. Some within minutes, non lasted more than a month. They all died!

M may
S suddenly
D die

It’s no joke. That’s what they do! Each and every 6 & 6A box has crapped the bed in me.

Each and every replacement 6 or 6A box crapped the bed on me.

Go to 4secondsflat.com and ask them for there bad *** ignition set up and be happy instead of one day replying to a thread like this and writing what I wrote about warning people about being test another sucker purchasing a made in China crap box.

Yep! You read that right! MSD farms out there work to the Chinks.

As said above, ether find yourself a old hood American made ignition box by;

MoPar - Crane - Mallory (before MSD purchased them up and destroyed them) OR

Got to 4secondsflat.com and grab one of there boxes made in America.

MSD is ****… repeat after me, MSD is ****, MSD is ****, MSD is ****, come on now, keep going until you run out of breath…
MSD is ****, MSD is ****, MSD is ****, MSD is ****….
 
Their ignition boxes seemed to be the cat's *** when they first came out. I'm wondering if the issues people are talking about are when they changed them over to digital boxes? Or is it what Rumblefish said about farming the process out? My older 6AL is an analog version.
 
I put an MSD HEI module in my RA-III's distributor and it made a world of difference. It didn't drop spark like a hot turd above 4,500RPM like the stock ones do; it pulled well past the point at which my OE connecting rods were a worry. I lost track of that engine years later but still running that module. A good friend had a 6AL in his Charger for 20+ years without an issue. I bought my module in 1990; his 6AL was installed in '87.
MSD has changed hands more times than I can count since 1997. Apparently mismanagement was a way of life there for a long time, hence the repeated sales of the company. It's quite possible things just ain't what they used to be. The only MSD parts I've used since that HEI module were plug wires and a coil, so I can't testify for either side.
 
Have run 2 complete MSD systems on 2 dusters always performed flawlessly!!!
 
I knew John Quinn the original engineer that designed the first MSDs back in the 70s. He had 2 investors as partners. His "pay" was in units. The back seat and floorboard of his car was full to top of the front seat. He would show up at the drag strip and peddle them.
This was the way MSD started in El Paso TX.
 
I have used a msd coil, distributor, and ignition (6AL) in a couple cars, no complaints. I WONT use the new digital stuff. I prefer 20 or 30 year old stuff.
I am also using the old pre-msd Mallory box that weighs 20lbs. Flawless for thirty years.
I also have a msd box, that still works, that is so old it only says msd on it, no model number. They only had one model then.....

20210613_090616.jpg
 
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33IMP said:
I have used a msd coil, distributor, and ignition (6AL) in a couple cars, no complaints. I WONT use the new digital stuff. I prefer 20 or 30 year old stuff.
I am also using the old pre-msd Mallory box that weighs 20lbs. Flawless for thirty years.
I also have a msd box, that still works, that is so old it only says msd on it, no model number. They only had one model then.....
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Is your old msd a gold colored one?
The first ones I saw were a lite faded gold color with what looked like a hand written ser number. If I remember correctly it had a pigtail with about 10 wires you could wire into your car.
This was in 1974 so the Chrysler electronic ignition was barely 2 years old.
 
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Had an MSD Digital 6 box crap out on me and left me stranded or even more frustrating would intermittently work. Sent it to MSD and they said it was a known issue that the potting surrounding the circuit boards would crack and brake a connection. Of course they wouldn't warranty it. I'll only run magnetos or Mopar ignition (preferably with older sourced components. So a big NO on MSD!
 
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