Thread: For Don Shilady

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Thanks 34_40,

I was able to print out the chart from MSD.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Thanks 34_40,

I was able to print out the chart from MSD.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Sounds like you're good to go! We used to play with mixing the springs and weights to get the settings in between what was intended. It didn't amount to much but it was all good fun! I just saw a Sun distributor machine on Craigslist local to me and figured I should buy it.. then reality smacked me in the head, right between the eyes! Everything I own is electronic now.

Expensive Education

My shop mechanic (Bruce Orlandi of Performance Transmissions, Ashland Va) swears he has the correct spring in the "Big End" electronic distributor sold by MSD but I ordered the correct set of springs just in case I need a different spring. However after three (!) flex plates and three starters in five years he has found the problem but perhaps not the solution. The distributor shaft allows engine gear thrust to gradually advance the timing! I have never seen/heard of this before but it fits the facts. After each of the previous (expensive) repairs of a destroyed starter and/or flex plate the car started easily for about two months and then gradually increased kickback. I never dreamed the advance setting would wander and in fact you cannot rotate it by hand. Apparently vibration and the natural tendency of the cam gear link gradually increases the advance until the engine kicks back enough to destroy the starter. Now I have a very expensive competition starter with three bolts and a billet flex plate. This last time the starter broke but there was no damage to the billet flex plate. Sooooo, How can I improve the hold down clamp to make sure the distributor shaft does not turn to advance the ignition? The only answer here at present is to mark the position of the shaft (now set at 10 degrees initial with a maximum of 28 additional degrees when running) and check it frequently, maybe every week and set it back to initial the 10 degree mark.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teer rodder