[Pyrotechnic]

I got tired of MSD and their tech support telling me how perfect their work was how I MUST be the one at fault. I looked around for a new ignition box I saw that the Mallory 685 offered the most features for the money.

I installed the box this weekend and I had absolutely no spark. I spent all day trouble shooting and couldn't get it to work. Finally threw the HEI back in it, and it fires right up on the first turn of the starter.

Now just some background about me, I'm an electrical engineering major. I don't claim to be the best by any means, but when it comes to automotive 12V stuff I feel I'm very competent.

One thing that was blatantly wrong with the box - the connector that feeds the box battery power was wired WRONG. Instead of the wires matching up red to red and black to black, it was reversed. Obviously a manufacturing goof...more on that later.

So I call up Mallory and tell them what the problem is. The guy says "Oh you got one of the ones that reversed, we'll get that fixed for you." I then tell him that I did correct the polarity at the battery to see if the box would make a spark and it did not. He asks what coil I am using and tell him I'm using a Ford TFI coil. He tells me "Oh that coil probably blew out the box, you need our part number 29440 coil for it to work right." I directly quoted back to him the part of the instruction manual that said "This ignition box will work with all factory style coils" and he replys "Well thats neither here nor there"...I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that but somethings not adding up.

Besides that, I had to pay to ship the box back to them. I suppose it's my fault to some degree, I bought the box back in June but got busy and didn't install it till last week so my warranty with the place I got it from is up. Still, I honestly think they should have offered to send a shipping label given that it was a brand new ignition box, and that one of the issues was their mistake from the factory.

So now I'm out $15 for the shipping. Then tell tell me it will be 2-3 weeks before I get it back. Again, brand new box here. I've wasted a day trouble shooting. This is just ridiculous.

I suppose we'll see what happens when I get it back. Overall, I am not impressed and I feel like I'm in the exact same boat I was in with MSD. I may try to contact someone higher up at Mallory with my experience later just to see if they try to make it right with me, but I just wanted to let you guys know my experience if you are considering one of their boxes. I'll update with any news or when I get the box back.