Who's running an MSD Distributor?

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Blownfish

Blownfish

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I just bought an MSD Dist for my small block to replace my old DC Tach drive Dist and when I went to install it I realized the rotor is not lined up with the bottom of the dist shaft correctly.

If you line up the bottom of the shaft at 12 O'clock and 6 O'clock the rotor is pointing towards 2 O'clock on the MSD but on my DC, and an old Unilite I have sitting here and the 3 stock distributors I have lying here the rotor points towards 12 O'clock or basically the same direction as the paddle at the bottom of the dist. shaft.

I am wondering who else has seen this problem? Summit went and got another one out of the box and they said that it was the same way. The Guy at MSD was completely oblivious to a distributor without the gear attached, he said just pull it out and turn it a few teeth.

Any feedback would be appreciated, I wanted to hear what others had to say before calling MSD back
 
I just sold an E-Curve and that is the way it is/was. I just put it in as is, but if you want you can pop out the oil pump shaft and rotate it.

I'm not sure why they are built that way, but it can cause problems with wires. They all fit, you just need to check length prior to installing them.
 
I had a similar problem with an MSD distributor . however mine is in a 440 not a small block . The rotor did not point in the same direction as the factory dist . After the dist was installed I turned the cap intill the #1 plug wire lined up with the tip of the rotor ( while the engine was at top dead center ) . I had a friend try to start the engine while i used a timing light in the engine bay . I turned the dist using the timing light as a guide intill the engine started , then fine tuned it from there .
 
.........I would like 2 hear there reasoning behind there dist phasing........Personally if they cant make it correct I wouldnt use it.......kim........
 
No big deal,pull up the oil pump drive gear and turn it,thats what i've done a few times i've run nothing but msd on my cars..:-D
 
not to put down anyone in here but why not call MSD and ask someone there WHY ITS THAT WAY but make sure you talk to someone that knows what there talking about most big companys get the the guy that take out the trast to do phone calls when he not doing anything lol ( well from the of the people i talk to they know about as much)
 
One another note . I don't know if what I did is the correct way of doing it , but the car runs good . If there is a potential problem that someone knows of please let me know .
 
I did call MSD, twice! and they have no reason for manufacturing them that way, they said that is just the way they had done it since prior to 1982. From the sound of the guys voice, I don't think they were aware that it was incorrect.

I also talked to Summit and he called me back twice after he got out several distributors to compare it to and he was kind of surprised how far off the MSD one is compared to the others, he also mentioned that their house brand is off as well but that makes sense since MSD makes their house brand.

I never ran an MSD distributor before, this is my first one. I had run Direct Connection distributors in the past and the one I like the best is my cast iron Direct Connection tach drive race distributor but I can not find a replacement pick up for it any more and the caps are getting hard to find so I figured it was time to upgrade to one that you can get parts for a little easier, I went with the MSD since it is a plug in with the 6al box, I didn't know of the alignment problem till I got this one.

The big problem with their dist. is if you install it the way it comes and don't move the gear, your #1 plug wire will be where the #4 wire is suppose to be on the cap.

I have since talked to some other guys and they said they won't run an MSD because of this. If I had only known, I would have chose a different brand myself.

I am debating whether I will just move the dist. gear or send all my MSD stuff back and buy from a company that knows what they are doing.

The problem with moving the gear is I have a bronze gear which is tighter than the standard gears so it won't come out as easy and I have a big fat blower in my way.
 
Just a thought , but I was told that the MSD dist is designed after the GM dist . A small block GM engine has the same firing order as the Mopar small block but I'm wondering if the rotor is positioned in a differant place because of this . I hate to say this being a Mopar fan and all , but you might want to look at a small block chevy and see were the rotor and wires are positioned .
 
Blownfish said:
I just bought an MSD Dist for my small block to replace my old DC Tach drive Dist and when I went to install it I realized the rotor is not lined up with the bottom of the dist shaft correctly.

If you line up the bottom of the shaft at 12 O'clock and 6 O'clock the rotor is pointing towards 2 O'clock on the MSD but on my DC, and an old Unilite I have sitting here and the 3 stock distributors I have lying here the rotor points towards 12 O'clock or basically the same direction as the paddle at the bottom of the dist. shaft.

I am wondering who else has seen this problem? Summit went and got another one out of the box and they said that it was the same way. The Guy at MSD was completely oblivious to a distributor without the gear attached, he said just pull it out and turn it a few teeth.

Any feedback would be appreciated, I wanted to hear what others had to say before calling MSD back
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I just installed an msd in my small block 408 and yes shaft and roter was not the same..I just moved the wires accordingly...unless yours wires are too short not a problem...I will say this ...my engine idles better and has more response at any rpm...very happy with it...have always run msd.
 
My impatience got the better of me and I moved the dist gear, it was still a little tight but I was able to move it where it needed to go.

I guess I'm just too picky, I feel moving the gear to correct a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place is ridiculous.

trapster said:
Umm, Cant you just move the wires ?
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You can but I'm kind of picky when it comes to having everything look neat and clean under the hood and with the tight space behind the blower I wouldn't be happy with it that way. The #1 wire would be on the passenger side of the dist.

dusterforever said:
I just installed an msd in my small block 408 and yes shaft and roter was not the same..I just moved the wires accordingly...unless yours wires are too short not a problem...I will say this ...my engine idles better and has more response at any rpm...very happy with it...have always run msd.
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Their products do perform extremely well and that is the only reason I don't send it all back.

I'm going to ad their decal to my trailers wall of shame, along with JE Pistons, BDS, Laysons restorations, ARP and a few others that has sold me products that don't meet up to the quality that they claim them to be.
 
Yes,unfortunately it is designed after a g.m. dist. so you either move the wires or move the gear,both not a big deal,,i think msd knows what they're doing you'll find just about nothing but their products on professional cars,and i tend to think the pros. know what they;re doing..:-D:-D
 
yellow73dart said:
Just a thought , but I was told that the MSD dist is designed after the GM dist . A small block GM engine has the same firing order as the Mopar small block but I'm wondering if the rotor is positioned in a differant place because of this . I hate to say this being a Mopar fan and all , but you might want to look at a small block chevy and see were the rotor and wires are positioned .
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Quite likely. A lot of the billet distributor designs out there use a common "head" assembly and only change the shaft portion between different cars.
 
Blownfish said:
I just bought an MSD Dist for my small block to replace my old DC Tach drive Dist and when I went to install it I realized the rotor is not lined up with the bottom of the dist shaft correctly.

If you line up the bottom of the shaft at 12 O'clock and 6 O'clock the rotor is pointing towards 2 O'clock on the MSD but on my DC, and an old Unilite I have sitting here and the 3 stock distributors I have lying here the rotor points towards 12 O'clock or basically the same direction as the paddle at the bottom of the dist. shaft.

I am wondering who else has seen this problem? Summit went and got another one out of the box and they said that it was the same way. The Guy at MSD was completely oblivious to a distributor without the gear attached, he said just pull it out and turn it a few teeth.

Any feedback would be appreciated, I wanted to hear what others had to say before calling MSD back
Click to expand...
I've been running the MSD distributor for years with no problems what so ever. I've always turned engine to TDC compression stroke and turned the bronze gear slot so it points to number 1 bore. Fires no problems. Jayson
 
jysnflem said:
I've been running the MSD distributor for years with no problems what so ever. I've always turned engine to TDC compression stroke and turned the bronze gear slot so it points to number 1 bore. Fires no problems. Jayson
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That is the way my engine was, the slot pointing towards #1 cyl. the problem is with the MSD dist in it the rotor pointed towards the #2-#4 cyl. which is not right. with the other distributors the rotor points towards the #1 cyl. or straight ahead like it should. I had to move the slot to where it points towards the #7 cyl. to get the rotor to point the correct direction with the MSD dist..
 
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