Driving down the road, vette gets up to temp, running fine. Then dies, just shuts off. Called MSD, had me do a test to see if the 6AL box is working right, test passed. A bad coil could cause this problem had a spare so changed it out, still dies. MSD said it's a bad magnetic pickup in dist. Have to pull dist to change out, went to check timing before pulling dist [when it's running, it runs great ] timing light dies. Went to SKY65's house, it's close, put his timing light on it and it was acting flakey, flash then pause, plus with vacuum hooked up to dist, was reading 0, disconnect vacuum and plug hose and couldn't see the mark.
Anybody see this before

 

Sounds like two problems, intermittent operation and timing moved.
A couple basic questions. Are you sure the second light was working properly? Which distributor are you using to trigger the MSD? Which rev limiter chip are you using? Do you have another chip to try?

 

MSD Pro-Billet Dist, rev limiter chip 7000. My timing light is old, plugs on to #1 spare plug, Tom's just clamps on to #1 wire, don't have anymore timing lights Tom never had trouble with his light.

 

How old is the distributor? What model - 8572 with tach drive?

If you happen to have an old point distributor, you could drop that one in as a test and trigger the MSD with the white wire intead of the mag pickup connector to the 6a box. Refer to the install instructions diagram below.....Then you can determine if the mag pick up in the MSD Distributor is really the problem before you tear into it for no reason.

http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/6%20series/6series.pdf

My experiences with MSD tech support have not been very positive.

I have run my 6A (which is now more than 20 years old with no problems) with points and now with a MSD distributor (mag pickup) the box works the same either way.....

Then you are certain what the problem is...If it still drops dead with the point distributor then you problem is not the distributor. The its either back to the 6A box or a faulty wiring connection.

Good Luck.......

 

Bought the vette with this setup in it, just need to get it running right. Don't know how old dist is, it is a 8572 with tach drive.

I do have a 7AL box I bought for a drag car, MSD said it's not good to run on the street, as a test I don't see what it would hurt??? Come to think of it I have MSD Billit dist too [never used]

First I'll change out magnetic pickup and go from there.

 

Will changed coil, still dies, had a new Billet dist {no tach drive } put that in got it started went to Tom's his timing light worked fine, so it must be magetic pickup. I have a new one, but you have to take the dist apart to change it, { never took one apart so it was easier just to replace dist } I will fix the tach drive dist Took vette for a ride, starting to get dark, so I'll take it for a longer ride tomorrow.
But since Tom's timing light didn't act flakey, I think we got it.

 

Jack , my problem has nothing to do with your problem but it is still
a ign. problem that I had. I got my '60 running for the first time last
spring and I knew that I was going to take some long trips with it so
I bought a brand new ACCEL electronic distrib. and a new ACCEL
coil , I wanted 100% reliability--It ran fine until the first hot day in July
I got into city traffic the temp. of the engine went up---the engine
shut down, it had no spark, after half an hour still no spark, I had
to get flat bedded home [about 30 miles] I cost me $ 235. [ he
charged me more for putting straps around the tires, instead of a
chain around the axle housing to hold it on the truck.] The dist. was
still under warranty and Accel sent me a new coil and Dist. I
now carry a new Pick-up coil, a new module, and a spare coil behind
the card board in my trunk [ next to my spare fan belt and spare
fuel pump] I don't trust any of them. By the way when the car
got off loaded from the truck when i got home it started right up!
The person who owned the truck was a mechanic that has worked
on Chevys for the past 35 yrs. said that he has worked on after
market dist. a lot before and would not recommend any of them
but would recommend an Delco HEI and Point type Delco setup
over any of them for street reliability.