Took your advise and took mom for a ride.  She loved it! Ten min job to put the new cable on.  Think I found the problem on engine dying when I pulled the hood release handle.  It is definitely a short.  I am electrically challlenged.  After I connected the new cable I started the engine and the cable got hot and had a spark, turned the engine off and disconnected the battery.  Back when I connected the MSD box I connected one of the  ground wires to the bolt that holds the hood latch on the passenger side and the other ground wire to the bolt that holds the hood latch on the drivers side. BAD idea?   The instructions said to hook one of the ground wires to the battery neg  and the other ground wire to the engine ground.  Need advise on exactly where the best place to hook the ground wires to.  It's a long way to the battery neg  and am not sure where the engine ground is. Help

If you have this factory cable connected(which you should) I would think ANY good ground on the motor would satisfy both of the specified grounds in your MDS instructions. Since you have headers, the motor end of the cable may have been relocated(I had to move it to near the fuel pump on my black 79 to clear the headers).