1964 Ford Ranchero - Ignition Condition

The MSD Blaster 3 coil is made to go along with the billet distributor and will provide plenty of punch.

A new set of MSD Super Conductor spark-plug wires will round out our project and ensure that everything is new from rotor to spark plug.

These number tags were included with the wire set and help eliminate confusion when it comes time to route your wires.

Included in the distributor kit are various weight springs for the mechanical or centrifugal timing advance. The black plastic part shown is for vacuum-advance lockout should you desire. Also shown is the O-ring for the distributor housing.

This '85-only Ford distributor package took awhile to round up but, in the end, the well-worn look of things scared us away.

In the engine bay of our '64 Ranchero lives our B-50-based engine. It's shown with our breaker-point distributor in place. We did equip this unit with a steel gear but opted against the Flintstones-era technology.

Remove the distributor cap and set it aside with wires still attached. Remove the distributor hold-down bolt as shown, taking the hold-down away with it.

We had our engine already at top dead center so now the old distributor comes away from the engine.

With the distributor out, it's a good idea to close up the hole with a shop towel before something falls in. Next, the old voltage coil is removed from the engine.

We're pulling the cap off our new MSD unit. The cap hold-downs are machined billet blocks held in place with Allen bolts. The whole unit has a bulletproof feel to it.

Inside, we can see the springs and weights for the mechanical advance. Changing the thickness of the springs adjusts the speed of the mechanical advance.

Using the old cap as a pattern, we exchange the old wires for new, one at a time. When complete, the old cap and wires were discarded, along with the old distributor.

Before dropping in the new MSD unit, be sure to install the included O-ring as shown or you'll have a serious oil leak.

Pointing our rotor at the number-one spot, we now drop the new MSD Billet distributor into position.

If the distributor is difficult to seat, you may wish to try moving the crankshaft back and forth slightly. This should cause the new distributor to seat promptly. Check against the cap to make sure you're not "one tooth off."

It can be a challenge to get the hold-down bolt restarted without dropping it onto the engine, but we finally managed. We're wondering whether we'll have interference problems between the vacuum-advance canister and the late-model thermostat housing/water neck when we time the engine. If so, we'll have to revert to the early style part.

Moving along, it's time to install our new Blaster 3 coil. The instructions call for mounting the coil in the upright position.

When it's time to wire everything together, follow this simple diagram and you can't go wrong. We wanted a straightforward and sanitary setup. We couldn't have asked for better than this.

A close-up of the simple harness shows the weatherproof plug and terminal eyes.

You can see we have our cap and wires installed and squared away. Now the plug connection is made and the wires routed down along the front of the cylinder head.

Using the diagram as a guide, our connections at the coil were completed.

The coil wire was added. When removing or attaching the plug wires, be sure to pull them off the cap or coil straight up to avoid the risk of breaking off a terminal point.

We connect our vacuum-advance hose to a ported source above the throttle plate on the carb. At a later time, we'll decide which combination of advance control we'll use.

This photo shows our completed installation. The instructions include the correct wiring to incorporate an MSD 6A or other ignition box should we desire at a future time. We've used the MSD Billet distributor before and we know that when fire-up time comes, all we'll need to do is adjust our timing and we'll be up and running. Once our rig is on the street, we'll fine-tune our advance curve with the wide variety of options included.