Bought a MSD 8534 off a member here ( see Photo of what I got)

IMO neither buyer nor seller are at fault here your all pointing your fingers at the wrong person(s). MSD deleted the rust proofing process on their parts to presumably save a nickel per distributor.

Look here http://69camaro.nextmill.net/photos/distissue/dist3.jpg

Look inside your ProBillet distributor or your R2R they're all the same.

MSD spent major $$$ and years to burn their name into your brain, then they sold out to Holley, Holley found ways to make them profitable of course at your expense.

All made in China or Mexico now, sold the building in El Paso, dropped Tech Support and service.

This what a distributor should look like, not how all components are have the corrosion resistance coatings. Not shown but even the shafts are coated with a coating so slick we have to sand them a little so the distributor machine can get hold of the shaft to spin it. Our distributors carry a 5 YEAR warranty see if MSD will give you that?

DSB reluctor.jpg