Msd problem

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Heavy red to battery. Heavy black ground. Orange to positive coil, black to negative. Red to ignition. 2 wires in plug to magnetic pickup. White not used/taped off
 
How are you testing the system out of the car? Are you using an MSD tester, and an distro machine to spin and test? Are you using the same coil wire testing out of the car as you are in the car? Are the pickup wires polarity correct? Did you spark plug wires test good? @Newbomb Turk has a good video on Craptube but I don’t remember his page.
 
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Are you missing something simple. WHAT exactly are you changing when A: distributor in engine, B: distributor out of engine?

Are you cranking the engine USING THE KEY? Have you checked that small red is getting battery power BOTH in the key "run" position and the key "start" position? You MUST jumper the old IGN1 / IGN2 wires together--the run line and the brown bypass circuit--to get battery power in both run and "start."
 
67Dart273 said:
Are you missing something simple. WHAT exactly are you changing when A: distributor in engine, B: distributor out of engine?

Are you cranking the engine USING THE KEY? Have you checked that small red is getting battery power BOTH in the key "run" position and the key "start" position? You MUST jumper the old IGN1 / IGN2 wires together--the run line and the brown bypass circuit--to get battery power in both run and "start."
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Tried turning starter with switch and arching at the solenoid. Same results. I'm so confused.
 
Not a fan of the MSD systems and their related problems.

Friend sent me a picture of his spark plugs as his engine is not running quite right.

Told him you need a hotter more powerful spark.

Sent him this Champion Plug picture out of my stock build 360 on the run stand.

20241030_192755.jpg


Running mopar distributor with HEI conversion and a stock grade E-coil. The 60,000 volt E-coil is used from You Pull It Parts, and still is working 100%.

20241030_194358.jpg


Some folks like to play around with that Red Stuff, I would rather get onto the next step of things and skip the frustration.


☆☆☆☆☆
 
Steve silver said:
Tried turning starter with switch and arching at the solenoid. Same results. I'm so confused.
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BUT are you CHECKING that the small red has battery power in both situations? This could be a simple and well known "problem" (easily corrected) in the original car wiring.

When you twist the key to "run" the IGN1 "run" line supplies power to the ignition system, alternator field, and VR and on some models a couple other things

THIS POWER IS ONLY LIVE with the key in the "run" position. This power GOES DEAD when the key is twisted to start!!!

HOW DOES the ignition get power in "start?" Through the IGN2/ coil ballast bypass circuit. This wire originally hooked to the coil + terminal on the ballast, and with the key in "start" fed power to the coil. YOU MUST jumper the IGN1 "run" and the IGN2 "ballast bypass" together when using a non ballast ignition such as MSD.

Another little tidbit. Make absolutely certain that you have NO connections to the coil At ALL except the two wires from the MSD box.
 
Update... Found something strange. It has nothing to do with the installed vs uninstalled distributor. It's the rpms. When the distributor is turning slowly as starting, no fire. When you spin it quickly by hand fires great. We have tried a net Mopar distributor with same results. Air gap is correct
 
Steve silver said:
Update... Found something strange. It has nothing to do with the installed vs uninstalled distributor. It's the rpms. When the distributor is turning slowly as starting, no fire. When you spin it quickly by hand fires great. We have tried a net Mopar distributor with same results. Air gap is correct
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Any chance the pick-up coil is wired backwards?
 
Scody21 said:
How are you testing the system out of the car? Are you using an MSD tester, and an distro machine to spin and test? Are you using the same coil wire testing out of the car as you are in the car? Are the pickup wires polarity correct? Did you spark plug wires test good? @Newbomb Turk has a good video on Craptube but I don’t remember his page.
Click to expand...

MadScientistMat said:
Any chance the pick-up coil is wired backwards?
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Not that I can tell. Works fine at higher rpms not at lower
 
Just try swapping the wires and see what happens. Just a test. The MSD box usually triggers both ways, but one way gives much more accurate timing (in fact, if you can set the timing accurately, you probably don't have it backwards...) and more reliable triggering.
 
If the p/up wires are reversed, you would soon know.......
It advances the ign 30-50*, with resultant misfiring/backfiring.
 
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