Ok, I'm sure some of you folks have done this before: you buy an aftermarket part to upgrade your engine, dissassemble and remove the stock part from the car, and install the new part only to find that IT DOESN'T WORK ON YOUR CAR! Well, I happened to do that very thing today. I ordered an MSD high energy ignition module from Summit that claimed to be "compatible" with my LG4's distributor, and today I tried to install it. Turns out the module is a 4-pin connector version, and the wires on my car are 7-pin. How frustrating!! Anyway, after a few minutes of cooling off (needless to say I was pretty pissed), I decided to reinstall my old module and just be happy with the other MSD ignition parts that I had put on. Well, I got the stock module reinstalled, but the little metal ring inside the distributor would not accept the screw that I had taken out previously. I fiddled with it for about an hour and managed to get 2 of the 3 screws back in every time, but could never manage to get the last one to thread. So now I'm pretty angry again, can't get this stupid thing reinstalled and I don't even know what it is or what it does. I notice that one of the rings inside there looked cracked and I pushed it with my finger. All of a sudden, it falls out and I pull it out. I start to look at it again and another two peices had fallen out as well. At this point, I don't even know what's going on. I looked it up in both the Haynes manual and the GM service manual and neither of them mention anything about these things. So basically, I need some help figuring out exactly what has happened here, if I need to replace some more parts, and which parts need to be replaced if so. Thanks.

here is what they came out of

You said you needd a 7-pin for the MSD, so now you have a reason to get one.

The module is not what I am concerned about, although I think I will order an ACCEL 7-pin module in the near future (MSD does not make a 7-pin version).

The real question is what should I do about this bottom ring since it has obviously cracked and broken into pieces? Does this "ring" even really affect anything, and if it does, where can I get a replacement or a replacement set for the distributor? Am I going to have to remove the distributor completely to fix this problem?

Here is another pic to help illustrate what I am talking about:

No one has any idea what these rings are or what they do?