Help! MSD Dist. doesn't fit.

Dave,

there are other owners running MSD distributors with the engine screen in place. I've not installed an 8577 in a Pantera yet, I know the 8350 ready to run distributor is a tight fit, but it fits. The 8350 runs the same cap & rotor as your 8577.

Any chance your distributor is not fully seated into the block?

your friend on the DTBB

Hi George,

The distributor is seated. It's just too tight a fit between the engine cover and distributor cap at the firewall. If the engine was set back away from the firewall a couple more inches, then everything would fit. Right now the front edge of the engine cover is pressing on the plug wires closest to the firewall. My old distributor (Unilite) was just plain shorter than the MSD. With out the engine cover, the MSD fits fine.

Ah, now I see what you mean...firewall clearance

There are two MSD distributors for the Cleveland, a large cap and small cap. You need the small cap version to prevent the distributor hitting the firewall and destroying the cap as soon as the engine is under load.

It sounds like the 8577 is the large cap version or maybe it comes in 'large cap' & 'small cap'? I think the one I purchased was the 8477, mechanical & vacuum advance, (but you could remove the vacuum if you want to stay with mechanical only).

Julian

quote:

Originally posted by racerdave:
Hi George,

The distributor is seated. It's just too tight a fit between the engine cover and distributor cap at the firewall. If the engine was set back away from the firewall a couple more inches, then everything would fit. Right now the front edge of the engine cover is pressing on the plug wires closest to the firewall. My old distributor (Unilite) was just plain shorter than the MSD. With out the engine cover, the MSD fits fine.

RacerDave sir, I thought the unilite was made by accell. I have the unilite distributor and I didn't know it was a mallory. Hmm, I will have to let Doug know. Thanks.

Hi DeTom,

Both Mallory and Accel are "owned" by Mr. Gasket. I'm not sure why they continue both distributor lines. The Mallory Unilite is an optical trigger design and the Accel is a magnetic trigger. I've had two Mallory units fail with internal mechanical problems, so I was hoping to switch to a MSD.

Well Doug told me that accel was crap. Someone else told me MSD was crap. We all know that points nad plugs are crap, so I guess they are all crap.

quote:

Originally posted by racerdave:
...the front edge of the engine cover is pressing on the plug wires closest to the firewall ...

Dave, that's about how the 8350 fits too

MSD makes a good distributor, I like the advance mechanism a lot, and the fact it uses an inductive pick up. I figure you chalk it up to another thing Pantera owners put up with.

To resolve confusion amongst the MSD distributors, all of them except for #8580 use the same "small" distributor cap, # 8431 with rotor #8467. A small distributor cap is also available for #8580 as an option, that cap # is 8433.

Ready to run (with vacuum advance) #8350
Street Pro Billet (with vacuum advance) #8477
Billet (large cap) #8580
Pro Billet Small #8577

Your friend on the DTBB

I concur, the mallory advance mechanism is weak, seen the plastic bushings fail quickly.

Dave -
The 8477 should fit. I have it on my 71 which I believe has a tighter fit engine screen than even the later models. It is in so that the vacuum advance is pointing off towards the driver's neck. Hope this helps.