Oldsmaniac

I thought I read that the 78 Toro had no distributer but some sort of trigger on the balancer? Am trying to find some info on this setup as to what it was and if there was a plug for distributer hole in the block yet the oil pump still driven off the cam ? Thanks

joe_padavano

The MISAR system was the first microprocessor-controlled ignition system in production. It was used on 1977-78 Toros with 403 motors. MISAR used a regular HEI distributor body (with coil and wires), but the spark was triggered at the crank with a magnetic pickup. Consider this a predecessor to the distributors used on the CCC 307s. There was an SAE paper presented in 1978. You can purchase it here, as well as view the first five pages as a preview.

Oldsmaniac

Ok got it, my friend needs to run a distributer less ignition system on his LS intake swap and thought this could be a solution. I believe he did find something that will work on his Olds.

joe_padavano

Unfortunately, about the only parts of the MISAR system that would be useful would be the crank trigger parts, and good luck finding those. Aftermarket parts are probably a better solution anyway. You'd probably want to use the EFI computer to also run the ignition, either with COP or DIS coil modules. The diesel dummy distributor is probably the better way to go for turning the oil pump (or making a dummy distributor is pretty easy anyway).

Oldsmaniac

Thanks

young olds

he can run a ford edis-8 ignition and control it with a megajolt, megajolt is $150-200 and you can get the edis parts at a junkyard. Im considering this for a distributor-less olds. I was going to just modify an old distributor to turn the oil pump but not have the distributor body.