I sent this to MSD.

"I just bought a 95-97 MSD Optispark and I am pleased with the quality of the product. I have two problems though. One of the screws that hold the cap on the distributor was stripped out. I went to Lowes and replace all of the outside screws with allen bolts. That was less than a $2.00 and was not a problem at all. My thought on this is that when the radiator is on the car, space is tight and a screwdriver is not the easiest tool to work with. Also the O-ring was very, very hard to get on the distributor. Everytime I stretched it out and slid it over the lip, it would slip off. I finally got it to stay with it off of the car. I could not see getting the O-ring to stay on while the distributor was on the car as the instructions say. I think a machined groove on the aluminum lip would help the O-ring stay in place during installation."




The Opti is a nice piece and seems to be built a tougher than the factory unit. The wires are sealed coming out of housing and the cap is sealed to the housing by an O-ring. The machined housing is thicker than the stock unit. My car cranked right up after installing it. Next weekend I will drive it around.

 

there's another writeup about this and other problems with the unit. reports of misfiring and destroyed rotors...cracked rotors, and plenty of other stuff.

 

Sounds like the quality isn't as good as you say it is if you are already replacing stripped out screws and having troubles installing it.

 

I couldn't get 1100 rpm out of my, sent back junk rotor rubbing MSD opti.

 

Are you sure this is not the 1st thought: http://64.65.63.61/forums/showthread.php?t=478990 ?

It predates this post.

Why not delete it?

 

Unless you sent the letter annonymously you've just voided your warranty.

 

Why would I have voided my warranty? I found one other person that has posted about installing one of these, so I thought I would share my ideas, but I guess you guys did not want to hear that. This is a good option to buying a stock replacement or some of the wire mess with so many coils. Especially when everbody BITCHES about it so much. If you think they are so bad, then buy something else.

 

I don't know, I'm still pretty skeptical about these units. From those that have them, it seems the quality just isn't there. Even in your case, replacing a stripped screw isn't a big deal, but after forking over a few hundred bucks for the thing, I would expect better. My stock opti has lasted almost a 100K and shows no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. I do still plan on replacing it with a stock GM replacement when I do heads/cam just as a precaution.

 

Because if it ever goes faulty and they knew you have taken it somewhat apart they can always blame you since you were the last one to see the innards of the opti. May not be the case, but they have to cover their ***.

 

The instructions tell you to take the cap off for installation.

 

I don't get it. So they tell you to take the opti apart when instalilng?

 

The O-ring that seals the cap and housing is packaged with the mounting bolts, so it has to come apart for O-ring installation.

Here are the instructions.
http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/8381_frm27275.pdf

 

Gotcha... seems like a lot of work just to slap an opti on. I'll take my chances w/ the stocker. I've had good luck so far.