So after 10 miles my msd took a crap on me and now I'm in the process of waiting for the cap and rotor to rebuild it ($150). I decided to keep it because it allows me to run a vented system on my 1994. What else do I need to get or do when I perform the rebuild. I searched it and found that I need to order the square gasket instead of the o-ring gasket that was originally used? What about longer screws for the rotor? I recall that lock-tight is also a must when re-installing the screws. Anything else I'm leaving out here?

 

Oh, wouldn't the msd new cap and rotor that I ordered come with the new square gasket and rotor screws? Or do those need to be ordered in addition to the cap and rotor?

 

Defective after 10 miles, I would send it back!!

 

Can't I installed it after the 1 year warrenty was expired. I still contacted msd and they wouldn't stand behind their product. Basically told me I must've installed it wrong and there was nothing they could do about it since the warrenty was up

 

I installed a brand new MSD cap and rotor on my car. It didn't run two minutes before it failed.

 

z28 4life:

You might want to explain what failed in the MSD Opti after 10 miles. "took a crap" is not very informative. What parts failed?

 

Fred,

I just got the opti out tonight so I'm sure your laughing in your seat right now since I didn't even know 100% that it was the msd opti but I was 99.9% sure. Low and behold it was. However, the rotor screws were still in tact. The problem was that the rotor burried itself into the back. I've got red marks where it was digging in and then red powder on the inside. I can send someone pictures through my phone because my comp isn't loading pictures off of my camera for whatever reason.

 

Fred, I searched through some old post and you made a comment that really hits pretty dead on with what appeard to happen with the msd.

"Question would be why would the rotor rub on the plate that covers the optical section? Does is appear that the plate might have warped from excessive heat, or bowed from the vacuum being hooked up in a way to cause a lower pressure on the rotor side of the plate?"

The rotor only rubbed on the bottom half, not the top, which is weird. It's like it burried itself into the plate. Here's the kicker, it spins freely now that it's off the car and cold. So I'm assuming it was the heat that caused it to warp. The vaccuum line was hooked up perfectly according to the directions. Everything was done to the T. The car would heat up and after 15-20 minutes just die. Eventually, it wouldn't even turn over. I have a new cap and rotor that I ordered because I hate thinking that I wasted $500 on a paper weight so I'm going to give it one last try.

 

http://home.comcast.net/~markpoulton/dist.pdf
This guy has almost the identical issue except mine made contact on the bottom half portion of the plate. That and he got 900 miles out of his where mine lasted 10...lmao.

 

But if it was rubbing on the "bacK" (I assume you mean the cover plate between the rotor and the optical sensor), where did the red powder come from? That's usually a problem with the rotor being forced forward into the cap.

 

My MSD opti is fine all the way to 6400rpms. I did take it apart and put thread locker on the rotor screws, then checked for the rotor hitting the inside of the cap before I installed it. I have heard of the rotors hitting on the inside of the cap, but I did not have that problem.

 

Yes, that is correct the rotor dug itself into the back plate (not the cap). There were NO marks on the cap itself but there was red powder residue. If it was rubbing on the cap it should've showed signs. The red powder appears to be from the rotor continually rubbing on the backing plate and losing it's material. The only thing I could think of is like you said, "heat expansion" forcing the plate to dig itself into the rotor. Makes sense to me Did you look at the link I posted? His rotor also dug into the back plate and left residue on the cap. No marks can be seen anywhere on the cap just the back plate. The screws were not lose on the rotor but I will be putting loctite on them before installing the opti again.

 

The MSD rotor also dug into the backing plate on my car. It only ran for about two minutes before the spark began breaking up. No marks on the cap. It set the P0300 random multiple misfire code. Had to get a GM cap and rotor and it ran fine with it.

 

Used the new MSD cap and rotor on an "unvented" base and you have yourself a reliable vented opti. The whole MSD unit has a very bad track record. I have hit 7000 on a GM opti.

 

How come you guys will spend 500 for an MSD with a bad track record, but won't consider springing another 100 for one of these?

http://www.dynaspark.net/