Timing Lights

As with most tools, there are several versions of timing lights available, and they can range from cheap to upwards of a couple hundred dollars. When you’re shopping for a light, ask yourself what you’re looking to accomplish along how much you can spend. If you’re only going to be setting the timing occasionally on your street machine you may not need the super cool light with the latest gizmos and gadgets. If your engine strives on timing changes within a half a degree, stepping up to better quality may be required.

MSD Ignition offers a couple different timing lights; a Standard Light and a Self Powered Light. Both have removable leads (for safety and storage) with clamp on pickups. The nice thing about the Self Powered version is that it doesn’t need to be connected to the battery.

Timing Tapes

You can have the brightest, most accurate timing light available, but if you don’t have a clear timing mark on the balancer or pointer, it’s not going to do you any good. Stock balancers will just have a timing line stamped at the TDC point for the number one cylinder, so there’s not much of a chance to check the total advance. MSD offers a Timing Tape PN 8985 that you apply to the balancer so you can accurately check the total timing of your engine.

How to Build High Performance Ignition Systems

If you’d like to read more about your ignition system, this is a terrific book that covers many stock and aftermarket ignition systems. Over 140 pages, nice photography and many wiring charts fill the helpful pages and will guide you through a complete ignition setup.

Wiring Diagrams and Tech Notes CD

Need a wiring diagram for your MSD components? This CD is packed with hundreds of common – and not so common wiring schematics for MSD’s entire product line.