I am not sure if I am the only one but when I took the cap off my MSD distributor I found a rusted , black sooty mess. I am very disappointed , I took it out and everything was a corroded mess. I have never had that issue with the old HEI unit I had in there. I like the MSD Pro Billet because of the timing advance was really user friendly with the springs and the bushings but it looks like it was under water.

Dave

you live near salt water?

often there are vent holes in the body or the cap, see any on yours?

Dave, saw your post in that other thread over in Engines. I've had my share of of trouble with MSD stuff over the years but that problem your describing is not something I've seen over over the last 8 years of being on this board every day. The ventilation thing I mentioned above is something that can cause this type of stuff. Another problem that causes this deal is when the engine crankcase isn't adequately ventilated. If pressure builds up in the crankcase it sometimes finds it's way out through the distributor shaft seals.

Is the black gunk in your distributor oily or dry and rusty? The air in the crankcase is both oily and heavy in moisture content.

Do a search, there is a long thread about this earlier. May have some good tips there.

Yeah Tom
Inside the cap its black and sooty. The reluctor wheel and the pick up coil is all dry and rusty . Like I said , I use to use a HEI with the jumper wire and the module removed it never ever looked like this. I called my friends they all looked at theirs same thing. I like the distributor because of the advance works so smooth and accurate. The reason I pulled the HEI out because they are a bit more difficult to tune. When I did time it the HEI the marks seem to move around so jumpy.

Dave

Dave,

This seems to be a fairly common problem. I have one in the shop right now that belongs to one of my employees and it looked like crap. we took it apart and glass beaded everything and it seems to be ok. MSD told him it is from moisture and the car not being driven much. They said they would rebuild it for $100 if I recall correctly. I have seen it in a couple of marine units too but would almost expect it there.

Unfortunately I've had the same experience with my pro billet. I take the shaft out and clean it every couple years. I used white lithium grease on the shaft and reluctor last time I took it apart. That seems to have really slowed the problem down. I've also found that the MSD distributor caps corrode must faster than a regular parts store cheapo replacement, too.

Yeah true enough its a weekend car only. It sits from Nov to Mar because of winter here but like I said my HEI didn't look like that. It sounds like thay are not vented well enough.

Dave