Can you crank the engine over without the MSD
hooked up at the dist... I have heard you shouldnt
crank it without it dumping the voltage... is unplugging
the dist good enough.... I need to crank/bump the engine
to get the intermediate shaft to drop into the pump

How you gonna keep the distributor indexed doing this?, Should be able to drop shaft in different locations and work it around on gear at a time till it is indexed properly. Am I missing something? this is a small block right?

I want the dist indexed in a certain place.. its into
the cam gear but not into the pump
EDIT
Needs to go down about 1/2"

Well I'm gonna assume if the dist is unplugged
and I turn the engine over it would be the same
as the car sitting there with the ignition on...
but I can turn it over with a socket but wanted
to jump the relay and push down slightly to make
sure it starts in... I just got done priming it

I've never heard that. I've pulled the coil wire and cranked an MSD engine quite a few times without any problems. What you are doing may be better as it never gets a trigger. I can't see either way there would ever be a problem.

I'm not sure I would design an ignition system that would self destruct in the event of a disconnected component. I would guess this is baloney.

Well, here is the clincher, I have never read that in the instructions, did I miss it? If its not there, then there is no problem.

Well I guess I heard wrong then.. but I would
rather ask then burn it up

Turn the engine by hand to get it where you want, allot easier to do that while you standing there with the engine. You don't need much.

I did turn it by hand.. had to go 10* and it fell
in

Oh, I didn't mean to be a wise guy Mr. P body. Sorry if I came across like that.

I worked and taught Navy equipment for years. It was funny as there was several "rumors" as to how one should turn off the hydraulic system, and also when to turn off a certain circuit breaker.

People had been living by these "rules" for years, yet none of it was documented in the book, because it was all hearsay baloney. I fought that BS for over 20 years to get rid of that behavior. I wouldn't doubt they are back at it now though, it would only take one actor to start the crap all over again, even though it was never in the book procedure.

That's why I mentioned the instructions, the documentation for us guys.

I would have said the same thing because I'm really a disbeliever when it comes to legends.

So imagine my dismay when, after spinning the engine in my '93 Suburban without the distributor cap on, it didn't start when I put it back together. No spark. Ignition system was my favorite Accel 300+. I found a burnt fuse in the power lead. Replaced the fuse and started right up. So there could be something to the warning. It should be easy enough to disconnect the big red wire from the battery before spinning it, right?

R.

If you're jumping the relay the key would be off, so the MSD would be dead anyway, right?

If the distributor is not plugged in the MSD has no idea the engine is turning anyways.

Thats what I said earlier.... but the job is done so
thanks guys