[ArubaCobra]

the MSD unit will run without the chip. Don't be so down on MSD, they have a great product, I run their units on several of my vehicles. Including my Prostock probe which run a 16 volt system. I only had one problem because I hooked up a wire wrong once, and they fixed it free of charge. what they are trying to do by asking you to short the violet and green wires etc. is trying to isolate the problem. for instance, if it sparks when you short the wires , but there is no spark when they are plugged into the distributor that would indicate a problem with the pickup in the dist. Look at it this way, once both your units are fixed, you will have a spare, and then according to murphys law you won't have anymore problems, unless of course you don't carry the spare unit with you