what the heck is this?
 

center of photo, it's the size of a small salt/pepper shaker with 2 wires going to it.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...-48-38_758.jpg

it has 2 black zip ties on it, looks like something that's been added to the ignition, but what is it??

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...-48-48_314.jpg

1977 F250 4x4, 351 engine, 4 spd trans.

Doing some tune up stuff on my "new" truck, accel pump on the carb, plugs and plug wires... this thing throws me for a loop... not sure if I should remove it or not.

Looks like some sort of capacitor maybe? Not sure why it would be there though.

would it have had anything to do with a tach??

(grasping at straws here)

It's possible. Tachs need power, signal and a ground. Where do the wires go? It looks like the one is tied into your coil power wire.

yes one wire is tied to the positive coil wire, and the other wire is grounded to the condensor mounting screw.

Looks like a back yard joe was trying to make his own MSD box!

Take the two wires and a pair of DIKES..:-X04.....and carefully remove from truck and toss it and DUCK! LOL!

That's a shade-tree version of a noise suppression capacitor. It looks like the person who installed it made a very poor decision by using a tee-splice to hook onto your crucial coil wiring. You should repair that.

I was suspicious of this... CB radio in the cab... maybe they were trying too keep the ignition feedback/interference down.

uno momento, I have clippers in hand... walking...

No trace of this item remains. :)

Thanks guys.

Assuming the tee splice left the wiring punctured, I would replace the wiring (new horseshoe connector), or at the very least patch it with liquid tape. This wiring is unfused; you also don't want it to corrode.

Good point, I'll get the wire fixed asap.