MSD pickup wires

[Jim Ward]

The question is not why these wires got the factory end cut off of them but if they are hooked up correctly or backwards. If they are backwards and the polarity is reversed will I need to change the plug wire orientation if I flip flop the wires?

Thanks for any help Jim

The car runs now but I’m chasing a rich condition and timing seems to be jumping at idle.

 

[Professor Fate]

timing seems to be jumping at idle.

Are you using a dial-back timing light? Dial-backs read erratically/inaccurately on MSD ignitions.

If they are backwards and the polarity is reversed will I need to change the plug wire orientation if I flip flop the wires?

No! Assuming you have the firing order correctly set up and there are no phasing issues on your distributor, the pickup polarity has nothing to do with firing order.

 

[Jim Ward]

Ok yes I am using a dial back light and it was all over the place at idle and nearly impossible to get a good read on the balancer.

 

[crackedback]

Get it running and check timing at idle with dial back at 0. Switch the wires. If reading is advanced from prior reading, the original wire orientation was incorrect. Set timing to original setting. depends on amount of swing available whether the wires need moving.

If it retards, original orientation is correct.

I only use a static light, no dial back stuff for me.

 

[Bewy]

Your wires are reversed. The black/orange wire from the dist connects to the purple harness wire.

 

[67Dart273]

The right way to do this is check "rotor phasing." Search it. Lots of info. And find/ borrow an older simpler, "non delay" timing light

https://documents.holley.com/techlibrary_rotor_phasing.pdf

What improper phasing does is the spark fires at the improper time due to reversed polarity, and so the spark is offset relative to the rotor position, and has to "jump" to get across.

 

[Bewy]

The right way to wire up the pick up is to get the p/up wires polarity correct, which I provided in post #5. That info comes from old MSD literature that I have.