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I've run MSD in marine applications with open and enclosed engines. I never experienced corrosion or rust issues. Maybe they use different materials in the marine units. The caps are vented to prevent moisture buildup. Have any of you contacted MSD and talked with customer service?
In the op's first post he said they are going to charge him a rebuild fee. In reading about this over the years, it seems their answer is an $120 dollar rebuild fee. Mine wasn't that bad and always worked fine but I will be damned if I was going to put another $120 dollars into mine. No more MSD for me!
Any comments on my idea about painting all that rusty crap with POR-15? I was thinking that would stop the corrosion, but not sure how it would affect performance?
I took mine all apart and cleaned it up. Replaced the pick up, springs and bushings while I was at it for a recurve from MSD factory specs.
Changed the cap and rotor as well. I haven't coated it yet but I would think some WD40 or similar won't be a bad thing IMO.
Condensation can build up in an enclosed space like the distributor, the heat and cold cycles the distributor goes through encourage this especially if you live in a humid climate. At a guess I would say the earlier distributors with the trap door for adjusting the dwell managed to breath a little and were less susceptible to this issue. Why don't you drill a small hole in the cap to allow it to breathe?
In the electrical industry we have to do this all the time with electrical cabinets or the gear inside will corrode.
There are various aerosol sprays available that will give a more lasting coating than WD40 to help mitigate the problem.
I had a MSD ignition issue a bunch of years back and it made me go back to points system. I swore I would never use that system for my street car. Im currently using GM HEI system. No more tow trucks.
I opened up my distributor today to eyeball. Looked like crap again. Last year I cleaned it and sprayed it with WD-40.
So today I decided to clean it again-- and this time coated it with POR-15 (hi-temp silver). I was concerned that it may not work afterwards, but no problem since it's really old now. I've used POR-15 elsewhere (headers) so hopefully this will arrest that annoying corrosion. Some pics.
ALSO- the little plastic seats that the rotor sits-on disintegrated as I went remove them....such garbage. I replaced them with some of those fender/plastic retainer things...see 3rd and 6th picture. I gather that will be ok ---If someone knows better and suggests that I should get more crappy MSD "seats", then point me in the right direction to get some?? I can't image this plastic will be any worse that what was disintegrating within there.
DISCLAIMER: I should mention that this distributor has never failed me.... just looks like crap and it shouldn't for what we pay for that thing.
Last edited by carriljc; Apr 28, 2018 at 09:14 PM.
Reason: add disclaimer...clarify wording
I had one that looked liked Ryan’s above after about 7 years and only ~6K miles around 2010. They told me it was out of warranty but would rebuild it for ~100 as stated above. They did mention the rotor cap vent issue... I was admittedly a little peeved at the time since it seemed like a known issue. That said I get it, they have a company to run and it ran well for 7 years.
I ended up buying a new MSD distributor with Vacuum advance as my previous one didn’t have it (purchased before I had any Corvette Forum education).
Long story short, I just checked the “new” distributor which is now about 8 years old and it still looks more or less new with no rust.
I am sorry you had this issue - it is a bummer....
Thanks but I no longer require either a tach drive, nor vac adv, I can now get a generic distributor since the EZ-EFI 2 is controlling timing and I put in electric tach from a 76(?).
Besides, this thing seems to work a skosh better after cleaning and POR-15(MAYBE MY IMAGINATION?)
Originally Posted by c3_dk
BTW I did see this on Ebay, I don't know anything about the unit.
But as I see it, it will need a new wire going into the EFI harness.
I'm going to look at my old Mallory (LED I believe it was called?) to see what it looks like. It's been sitting a shelf for 20+ years in the same garage. I'll share pics after I remember...
Ok--- here is the Mallory Unilite. I ran it for 12 years before replacing it with the MSD 8572. The Unilite was suffering from intermittent failures and the MSD with Tach Drive and Vac Advance seemed like the hot ticket.... and it was actually.
I don't know what this Mallory is made of, but that looks like some fine quality material.
When I next check my MSD for corrosion, if it's all crappy, I'll look into a new Unilite module and see if the EZ-EFI 2.0 can use it...
Here is picture:
Mallory tach drive unilite
Last edited by carriljc; Apr 29, 2018 at 12:42 PM.
I should look at mine again also......just to see how it's doing....
Just checked mine out - installed in 2015/16 and no corrosion of any consequence - but car is kept in a temperate and dry enviroment......edit.... looking at 'blown-up' image it seems the inside of the dizzy looks as though there are tiny flakes of aluminium oxide......strange!
