[frankym]

after doing all the things I outlined before, including grounding at the frame instead of the engine block (and making sure there was no paint at the ground connection point) the 4th MSD box wouldn't start the car! I tried the ground to the engine as before, and nothing. I didn't have time to screw around with reinstalling the points distributor so I am having my mechanic tow the car back in a week to have him try to troubleshoot the system with the 3rd box that MSD is returning (the first and only one MSD has seen and returned). Regardless of installation procedures, the box is way more sensitive than it should be. I have found the MSD techs to be less helpful than I would have liked, they couldn't tell me much in the way of the dianosis except that something (other than the MSD components) is cooking the main resistors and other electrical guts. Not much else in the way of suggesting how the bonfire is being caused except that I should recheck the installation and the rest of the electrical system. Surely something is being overlooked but for the box to not even start the car would mean that if the box wasn't defective then I would have had to have blown it out upon cranking and the voltage is lower during cranking anyways, so not sure where the surge is coming from and when. Recall that the other 2 boxes (Boxes 2 and 3) started the car and ran it for a couple of dozen miles before crapping out.