[60man]

Just bset up my now street car with a MSD street CD ignition & decided to use stock dizzy and points for a trigger wire. Works great !!
Question. Of any one running this deal how long is point life or need for adjustment. MSD says forever..
Just would like some real life experiences..
I set them at .020 as MSD tech said gap/dwell is not important..
Thanks & Merry Christmas !!

[R J Staub]

I think Steve could tell you. I think he used the same set for years, when he had the same setup. I'm helping him with the tranny tomorrow, I will ask him.

[HydroBob]

I have been running an MSD box with a points distributor for about 10 years. There is no longer any current running through the points to cause sparking and the resulting point wear. The points are only now a trigger for the MSD which sees the current. Once a year I lub the rub bar that contacts the distributor lobes.

The engine is a 455 with tri-power so using a stock distributor size is a must since an HEI will not fit and I wanted to keep the stock look. The car is a '56 station wagon with lots of room under the dash so I mounted the MSD and coil under the dash with a bulkhead male-to-male plug on the firewall. That makes for a clean install as all you see in the engine bay is the a coil wire from the bulkhead fitting to the cap and a single wire from the distributor back to the coil.

[60man]

Originally Posted by HydroBob

I have been running an MSD box with a points distributor for about 10 years. There is no longer any current running through the points to cause sparking and the resulting point wear. The points are only now a trigger for the MSD which sees the current. Once a year I lub the rub bar that contacts the distributor lobes.

The engine is a 455 with tri-power so using a stock distributor size is a must since an HEI will not fit and I wanted to keep the stock look. The car is a '56 station wagon with lots of room under the dash so I mounted the MSD and coil under the dash with a bulkhead male-to-male plug on the firewall. That makes for a clean install as all you see in the engine bay is the a coil wire from the bulkhead fitting to the cap and a single wire from the distributor back to the coil.

Thanks. What I was looking for.

[60man]

Originally Posted by R J Staub

I think Steve could tell you. I think he used the same set for years, when he had the same setup. I'm helping him with the tranny tomorrow, I will ask him.

Good to hear Steve got the tranny back.

[Cliff R]

I've set up a few points distributors for use with MSD. One in particular belongs to a good friend, and he has drag raced the car since the mid 1980's on the same set of points. He did go to an MSD billet distributor about 10 years into that deal and found it ran just a tad slower than the points set-up doing the same thing. We thought it may have been from loosing the natural timing retard at high rpms from the points distributor, but not exactly sure why?.....Cliff

[60man]

Thanks Cliff. I assume the Pertronix died(?) and I had several stock dizzys with spring kits so I just wanted to go with one of them to get running. As long as it's reliable it'll stay there I guess...
Guess I'll find out how long they last..

[lust4speed]

Only thing negative I can say about points is that we've seen some sets start scattering spark as low as 5,000 RPM when on the distributor machine. Just like triggering the ignition box, the machine doesn't impose much load on the points so I have to believe that it is just the nature of some points sets. The really strange thing is it doesn't seem to matter how decent or expensive the points are that are being tested. I've had a few very inexpensive all-in-one points sets that remained dead stable up to 6,500 RPM - but then might have a set of Blue Streaks start showing additional and random sparking after 5k. Most of the time you get what you pay for, but there are some exceptions just to keep you on your toes. The trouble is that the spark scatter might not be enough to physically notice out on the street, but could cause you trouble.

You are still going to have rubbing block wear, and will still have to check even a very good set of points as the miles accumulate.

[R J Staub]

Originally Posted by 60man

Good to hear Steve got the tranny back.

Steve said he has done what you are thinking for at least 10 years, no issues, never had to change the points.

Yes, the transmission is back and in. Only needs to put in one last converter bolt and hook up the shifter.