Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

It was in a '85 Camaro Stocker we helped a friend build back in the late 90's. All the components were mounted on a plate as above in the passenger floorboard. It sounded like it was on a two-step all the way down the track. Fred Niel said move the coil away from the box and into the engine bay which I did...solved the problem. I can't recall if it was a 7 or 6 MSD box, but it was before the digital was offered. Something to do with electromagnetic waves and no shielding the way I understood it.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

Only problem I ever had was where the coil wire passed through.If the grommet wasn't big enough, the wire would blacken at the firewall, like the voltage was leaking to ground.
I've had problems with coils overheating and slowing the car down, but not be readily discernible .
On a Chevy or Pontiac with rear distributor, I like the coil to be inside and away from the heat from the engine, converter, and headers.
On a front distributor like a Buick ,I was afraid the coil wire would be too long and hard to keep isolated, so I would mount the coil right up front where it will catch air from the fan or grill.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

Whether it was EMI or something else causing the problem, I never tried that trick again and have had no problems since.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

I'm sure it was an EMI problem. Reminds me of when Dedenbear first came out with their analog delay box, around the same time period. I bought one, was unimpressed, and built a prototype digital delay. It worked great on the bench.

Not so much in the car, near the MSD 7. It went totally nuts! Lots of shielding and bypassing later, it worked okay. My intent was to sell them commercially but the car and the delay box project got parked as I got divorced around that time.

Anyway I don't think having such a problem with an analog ignition implies there would be a problem with the digital one. But I'll check into it.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

This is the same set up Coil and MSD 7AL2 I had in my 68 Impala, here it is in my 65. Never had a problem. Just a heads up. What am i doing inside on computer, I should be outside in garage working on 65!!

Will Lamprecht Div1 I/SA 396/325 Impala in progress.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

I just spoke with tech support at both MSD and Summit Racing, and neither expect me to have a problem. I think the past issues were only with earlier design ignitions.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

Life has been intruding and slowing things down, but I do have the wiring around my ignition plate done. Since virtually everything electrical goes through here, the result is quite a few connectors.

http://i.imgur.com/mZvLPHs.jpg

It would also be nice if the weather would cool off a bit! I'm not asking for much, just hold it to 105?

This weekend is scheduled for maintenance on my bracket car and the trailer, so I don't think a lot will get done on the Chevelle. But maybe a little more time on the body work.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

HO ... LEE ... S%&T is that nice looking.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

Thanks! My ham radio skills do help sometimes.

Re: '66 Malibu N/SA
 

Once again I got tired of doing body work, and drifted off into something else. This time it was the tachometer mount. It's pretty tight on top of the dashboard, so I built a mount to move the tach down and back from the mounting plate on the dashpad. There appears to be at least a half inch between the back of the tach and where the windshield will be. I'll likely move the tach forward just a bit; it's not as close to the steering wheel as the picture makes it look, but it's closer than I'd like it to be.

http://i.imgur.com/AjgcvxQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CHHMTIV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dkm1wIH.jpg