you can buy a an hei on ebay for under. $80.00, id stay away from the msd. might be hard to get parts off the shelf. im running a petronics conversion with a msd 6a, works great. id run the ford hei but id have to change out my air cleaner to a aftermarket one.

 

I don't like HEI's on Fords. They work, but they're very bulky. And the control modules like to die.

Woody, none of us ever said points are the way to go. But you can run a stock distributor and even use points to trigger a CDI box. All the points are doing there is supplying a voltage trigger to the box without running any current through them, so they don't wear out.

My point was that an aftermarket distributor is a significant, unnecessary expense for most people. A stock distributor with a Pertronix upgrade or Summit CDI box will cost less and work the same, or better.

 

I couldn't agree more.
- HEI are massive and won't fit with any aircleaner unless it's tiny. the stock will not fir and the aftermarket typical 14" won't fit either

- if the distributor shaft isn't worn the next time I had to do things is to get a proper trigger (pertronix etc) and a CDI box and leave distributor as is. anything else can be replaced (vac advance, ...)

 

crane distributors FTMFW, hoping they start making them again soon.

 

At 175 that's not bad. I like them because they are more reliable than stock with petronix. I know people will say they have had theirs on for xxx,xxx's miles but I see a lot of them. And have seen a lot of them burn up. Including the one we put on a month ago that burned up as soon as it saw power. Haven't seen a MSD dist go yet.
It's not a marketing scam though. It's cheaper for someone who is going to run a box anyways to get one like that, than spend the 100 or so more for the ready to run, then the box on top of that.