[decooney]

Have any of you guys noticed premature failure of MSD distributor caps, where the carbon electrode little button on the inside/center of the cap errodes away or breakes off?

It seems about every two years or so (every few thousand miles), I'm buying another cap. I do check it every 4-5 months and clean the inside terminals; but this time it was a bit different inside. Today, started the car, it all the suddend started backfiring (popping loudly) every 15 seconds or so. I thought to myself, oh, probably some moisture in the cap since my car has been sitting for a while. So, we stop, pull the cap, and on the inside is this white/grayish ashy looking stuff collected on each terminal on the iside and you can see it inside in small granules in the cap. So, I look at the center betton that is usually a have circle sticking out and its ground off flush. In fact, it was indented a bit. My cap does not have the spring loaded center terminal, it was fixed like a half-round ball protruding slightly outward. My plug wires are good, but I have not changed my spark plugs in a year or so, and maybe I'm building up some resistance in the spark plugs which causes resistance in the cap; not sure till I pull them all out and check again...

I'm thinking I might try a standard Small Block Chevy cap instead or looking at feedback from others who've noticed premature wear on these MSD caps? Do you think it's possibly from another resistance factor somewhere in the cap, wires, or plug. Just trying to figure out why those center electrodes degrade and come apart which appears to be prematurely. That's symptoms.

Any ideas?

Thanks, DC