I'd been getting some hesitation since I broke my spark plug wire holder and as was predicted I did wind up with a nick in one of my wires.

I was mentioning this to my buddy and he gave me a free set of unopened MSD universal wires. All I need to do is buy the tips and he'* going to show me how to properly size, cut, and crimp them. Does anyone know the difference and which end is appropriate for the coil pack side on our cars? Is it HEI or Socket? The HEI have this press nub on the top. The socket look the same, just without that nub.

I called MSD.. These are the Parts they told me were the right ones:




All told, its going to come out to about $40 bucks, about the same as a set of premium Beldens. I'm going to do it anyway, if for no reason other than the experience.

$40.. is also the price for lifetime Autolite Professionals and AC Delco original equipment.

The HEI you were asking about. GM used an HEI or High Energy Ignition system on many of their motors (started on the 350ci in pickups in 75). It was a great system for the time and very reliable. On the top of the distributor cap was a retaining ring for some engineering reason we will never know. The little nipple you mention would push into the retaining ring as it was seated back onto the top of the distributor after the wires were changed.

Ya... I saw two different possible part numbers for the coil pack end. One was labeled HEI and the other was labeled socket. Thanks fot the explanation.

Back then..we hadn't heard of this coil pack thingy. It was typically a single coil and a distributor, until GM came along and integrated it together. The coil sat right atop the distributor in the distributor cap. Kinda like the overhead cam sits on the valves.