"MSD lovers" have you ever used one Dan? I still have the second one I ever bought in a Boss 302 that I've owned for 20 years. The first one was sold with my first Boss that I bought back in the early eighties. I've used them for quite a while in other words and have never had a problem. You might want to try one. I doubt you'll ever go back. I'm not saying go whole-hog and buy a dist and all; just the box. After you realize that you never have to set your points again (they only carry something like 3 milliamps w/MSD) and you only need one set hooked up because dwell doesn't matter, then factor in how much more crisp your engine will be, and you'll definitely never want to go back. In fact, if you are going through "points withdrawals," you can leave the second set in the dist just in case the MSD craps out then you can go back to the points set up in less than 5 minutes. That's what I did for years. I don't any more. There's a reason why there are about a billion MSD boxes out there in all manner of performance vehicle, it's because they work. So you might want to look at the massive # of up-sides rather than the incredibly small percentage of people having problems and try one for yourself. Compared to the cost of the rest of your engine, or car for that matter, it's a tiny amount and simple logic of scale should over-ride the knee jerk nostalgia. I mean, look at you, you're on a computer and everything!
Steve