Best bang for the buck in a mild app. is a rebuilt ford duraspark dist. from a mid 1970s 1/2 or 3/4 ton truck. Get it from Zone or oreillys, while you are there get a matching ignition box. They are known as a "Blue grommet box" because the wire grommet is blue, it is the most common ford box, it has a high output and is totally waterproof! It will run submerged in a bucket of water! With the cash you will save over a MSD, get the distributor curved by someone with a dist machine only! No guessing allowed here! We charge $85.00-$100.00. Be advised, there is a BIG difference between a car, performance car, and a boat advance curve. Use a good coil and you are good to go. if your local guy doesn't KNOW what a boat wants, have him call me. ANY performance distributor you buy for a car will be wrong for a boat. Also don't believe what the instructions say, that you can "use this spring, that spring, and this bushing" and expect it to be correct. As wonderful as the MSD electronics are, their distributors aren't anywhere near correct when set-up by their instructions. Only seen about TWO that were on the money in the last 20 -25 years. The MSD dist. uses a stock type Ford pickup, and a 1955 chevy advance mechanism. The reluctor/pickup magnet magnatizes the advance mechanism and will cause the curve to come in much later after a few hours use, that can be corrected when it is curved by an experienced tech, but thats why the MSD dist costs more to curve. All of my complaints for the last 25 years were met by the same answer: "we sell every unit that we make, if you know it won't be right, then you know to have it professionally set-up. P.S. the factory ford unit uses a better advance system, and the same pickup. TIMINATOR
