excellent detective work Jim!!!

ya know, last year i installed an electric W/P drive on my motor at the beginning of the season.
about 1/2 way through the year is when i first started having the top end skip, but only with the limiter activated(if i dialed it back to "0", the skip is gone).

i feel like something is messing with the limiter in my car, and it could be a similar situation to what you had.
i'm going to get the shielded lead for the distributor, and hard wire the end onto the mag pick-up like you did.....its easy enough to do, and it cant hurt.

Jim- Where is the connector in your distributor from. Is it sold separately, and do you have a part #? Nice work.

That is the connector that comes with the MSD box. It had spade terminals on it with about 6" of wire. I cut the wires short and soldered them to the magnetic pickup wires. It is the mating connector to the MSD cable that comes with the box. Check the MSD catalog, I bet they sell it separately. I just happened to have two since I sent my box back once to be tested, and they sent me a new box with all the cables, etc.

Check #8824, and #8867

BTW, the shielded magnetic pickup cable to the box is #8862

Glad to see the problem is apparently fixed. However I am going to make few suggestions just in case.

1. Your trigger wires are too close to the coil. Move the coil.

2. The nicely bundled spark plug wires looks nice but it is asking for a crossfire problem.

3. The two primary wires from the MSD to the coil should be twisted around each other to create a "twisted pair". They will shield each other reducing interference.

4. The trigger wires,including the pigtail from the distributor should be twisted together. Looks like the trigger wires may already be twisted inside their shield so they should be alright.

5. The alternator wire, the trigger wires and the coil primary wires should all be seperated from each other.

6. Twist the fan wires.

7. Twist the fuelpump wires.

8. Twist the power wires from the battery to the MSD.

9. The distributor cap should be vented when you have a high powered multispark ignition. Keeps ozone from collecting inside and causing misfire.

I hope something here helps you and the others out.

Thanks, those are good tips for everyone. I have already tried many of them. I have moved the pickup and coil wires many times, with no change. I am using the MSD supplied cable to the coil, is it twisted inside already?

I will do more "twister" things. I have the main power wires to the MSD twisted directly to the battery. I will also vent a cap as others have recommended.