I've gone thru 3 MSD 6M boxes in a year ! I put the old 6A boxes that came with the boat back on. No Idea how old they are,already had them. I'm thinking about trying a 7-AL box.....maybe I'm just a slow learner. Any thoughts?

I just spent (2) days wringing out the wiring harnesses for the initial start of my 502 mag mpi rebuild. Darn thing wouldn't get noid or spark. Tried every diagnostic in the #23 Merc manual and finally found the problem after many tests.

Who would have thought it was a bad ignition module in a brand new MSD distributor. In order to replace the module we had to undo solder connections to retrofit a trusty GM module. A female connector, like my stock distributior, would have been nice. The MSD cap and rotor, that I quickly trashed, appeared to be of lesser quality then the good ole' Accel components that replaced them. I expected to find "Made in China" on the MSD module ....

It will be interesting to see if Summit contest my request to exchange the MSD crap for the equivalent Mallory distributor. Mallory was my first choice but had a long lead time. Maybe it would be best to ditch the new MSD coil and 8.5mm wire before I'm force to enlist Sea Tow.

Lessons learned

Jesus, whatever happened to a good ole coil distributor combo's. Half (or more) of the people who use boxes, don't need them...

Though maybe not the best wording I generally agree, if it isn't messed up don't fix it. I spend enough money on things that actually go wrong, let alone replacing things that are completely fine. If the coil is functioning properly in a stock combination, an aftermarket one will get you no power.

Why not sell all the stuff and go HEI? EASY setup!

I agree, if you are going to spend money do something easy, I have this, all you need is the 7000 series.

http://www.performancedistributors.com/marinedui.htm