Distributor help needed

[Howlee28]

Can anybody tell me why the stock distributors have plugs going into them and the MSD ones dont? What are these plugs for? I understand their is a vacuum advance. Im talking about the wires. I plan on running a MSD distributor along with coil and MSD ignition box

 

[gsp]

They all have wires... Old points distributers do not...

 

[RonD]

All distributors need at least 1 wire, for the points to the Coil "-" terminal.

Electronic ignition distributors might have 2 or 3 wires for the sensor that reads the distributor's cam.

GM style HEI distributors, "coil in the cap", just need a 12v power wire but still have wires from coil to distributor base.

 

[gsp]

All distributors need at least 1 wire, for the points to the Coil "-" terminal.

yep, that's right

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If you go back far enough the old magnetos do not need anything to run. They may have a wire to ground them out to kill the engine but need no outside power to operate.

On my 1940's tractor the only wires coming out of the mag go to the spark plugs...