[DeTomaso] I love MSD...I hate MSD....

[Will Kooiman]

Sorry to hear about your strandiness.

I feel the same way about MSD.  My car runs better with the MSD.  I can feel
it.  It is smoother.  Here's something else that's weird.  I'm running 87
octane, and it doesn't ping or run-on.  Before I installed the MSD I had to
run the expensive stuff.  I had some other small issues I fixed, so maybe
it's unrelated to the MSD.

On the other hand, I worry all the time about getting stranded.  I don't
feel motivated enough to buy another $500 worth of MSD parts for a hot
backup, though.

On the other other hand, I doubt your vibration mounts are related to your
failure.  They pot these things in a lot of epoxy.  That is supposed to make
them pretty solid.

Will.

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:16 PM
To: DeTomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] I love MSD...I hate MSD....

Hi guys,

So, today was the big Capitol Panteras tech session, at Rick Carlile's shop 
in Sacramento.  My Pantera is really coming together, but there are a few
jobs 
that are nice to have a second set of hands for, so this morning I fired up 
and drove up there.

Rick, Jim and Emilia Seiferling and I were the only Panteras in attendance;
a 
couple of other people drifted in and out during the day.  Jim and I tackled

a number of small jobs on my car (i.e. replacing the nuts securing the upper

rear balljoints, lubricating my rear swaybar bushings, and cleaning up a
rat's 
nest of wiring in the engine bay by the ignition components).  Most of the
day 
was actually spent working on Rick's 1969 TVR race car; he is tearing it all

apart to rebuild it one nut and bolt at a time.

So Jim and I wound up taking all four corners off the car, which wasn't as 
easy as it sounds, since most of the fasteners had never been off since it
was 
built.

After a day well-spent, I jumped back into my Pantera, heading for Chris 
Difani's house, where we were going to do a bit of fabrication work on my
car 
(making a lid for my sunken battery box).  The car started right up, I drove
it 
two blocks to the freeway, and as I made a left turn, it suddenly died, then

came right back to life.  Hmm, odd.  I went another hundred feet or so, and
just 
as I was getting onto the onramp, it just quit, and quit for good.

Damn.

So, on the side of the road, I called PanteraStar, which in this case was 
Rick and Jim.  Soon they were with me on the side of the road, testing
equipment 
and wires going this way and that.  Electricity is my VERY weak point, and 
ignition systems are magic as far as I'm concerned, so my duties were
limited to 
turning the key on and off when told, and also standing around and looking 
philosophical.

Alas, it appears the MSD box has turned into an NSD, i.e. No Spark
Discharge. 
 I had never really looked closely at its installation (another club member 
installed the whole ignition system for me at a tech day, while I busied
myself 
in my element, rebuilding my umpteenth steering rack).  Turns out he had 
failed to rubber-mount it, so it's possible that it simply shook itself to
death.  

In any case, there appears to be a new MSD box in my immediate future.  
Fortunately Jim is working a half-day tomorrow, and he has the Big Head on
all this 
stuff, so I'm going to sic him on it while I go out and polish his wheels or

something. :>)

Here's a photo, with Rick Carlile's Pantera just ahead....

http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/NSD.jpg

Mike<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> See what's free
at 
http://www.aol.com.</HTML>
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