Fried my msd6a...
04-27-07, 05:22 PM
#1
Fried my msd6a...
So I've been trouble shooting a bunch of problems over the past couple weeks. Strong smell of fuel in oil, missing and breakup (as it seemed), and a shitty idle that seemed to have moods by the day.
I last weekend pulled all the plugs to find that there was a ton of carbon buildup on the rear trailing plug. All the others were black and were fine (I know im running really really rich so its not a suprise). So I wire wheeled them down and threw them back in. The car still ran the same.
Then I thought that the tps could have been out of adjustment (even thought i set it a couple months back). So i back probed and checked all the settings, though everything turned out in spec.
Next I thought it could be my Nology Hotwires getting a shitty ground. So i pulled the Nologys off and put some old ngks on to see if they made a difference. Attempted to start the car and it would not. So to all the guys that don't believe the Nologys are worth a **** its proof they do something.
Furthermore, I didn't feel like putting the Nologys back on and setting up the ground wires for them. So i ventured in town to get some cheapo temp wires. Finally got a set at an arm and a leg price. Put them on car and the car fired up but still ran kinda so so.
Next, I figured I would pickup a simple tool (always wondered if it was worth the money and if it worked) that can lay on top of a spark plug wire and light up if theres current flowing through. I started with the front trailing and got flashes, front leading and got flashes. Now to the rear rotor. Put it on the rear trailing and got flashes, then to the rear leading... NO FLASH!!! I tired a bunch of different hand positions in case i wasn't possibly on it correctly, no success.
Now I started thinking of the problems. It could either be A: my leading coil, B: some sort of wiring, and C: the msd box. So I pulled out two spare coil sets and measured continuity on them then tried mine on the car. They all were nearly the same. I figured with the msd not having many miles on it that it was most likely the coil as it could possibly have corrosion inside the the port that you cannot see. Took the best leading coil off the spare brackets, cleaned it up further, and switched it out with the current leading. The leading on the motor, to my surprise, had no corrosion in it. Put the uim back on, other parts, and fired up the car. Ran a little different at idle. Now to check for current in the wires. Went over them all and still had no current on the rear leading wire. UGHHHH!!!!
I was pretty disappointed to say the least. So I grabbed my test light and started probing the wires to see what i had and where i had it.
The MSD consists of 4 wires; red, white, orange, and black. I cant remember off the top of my head which wire related to the other, yet wiring up an msd box for people that do not know is pretty simple. You just put the box inline with the harness.
So now i started probing each of the four wires... Long story short Mr. Black was not sending a signal to the leading coil. Pretty much case closed it was the msd. For me thats not enough so i cut the rivets off the corners of the box that seal it and started to look deeper. I saw at one corner some moisture but nothing that should have cause a short. The box is surely out of the service time so I'll just be on my way to looking for another one. Just wanted to share this if someone has similar problems in the future...
-Lance
I last weekend pulled all the plugs to find that there was a ton of carbon buildup on the rear trailing plug. All the others were black and were fine (I know im running really really rich so its not a suprise). So I wire wheeled them down and threw them back in. The car still ran the same.
Then I thought that the tps could have been out of adjustment (even thought i set it a couple months back). So i back probed and checked all the settings, though everything turned out in spec.
Next I thought it could be my Nology Hotwires getting a shitty ground. So i pulled the Nologys off and put some old ngks on to see if they made a difference. Attempted to start the car and it would not. So to all the guys that don't believe the Nologys are worth a **** its proof they do something.
Furthermore, I didn't feel like putting the Nologys back on and setting up the ground wires for them. So i ventured in town to get some cheapo temp wires. Finally got a set at an arm and a leg price. Put them on car and the car fired up but still ran kinda so so.
Next, I figured I would pickup a simple tool (always wondered if it was worth the money and if it worked) that can lay on top of a spark plug wire and light up if theres current flowing through. I started with the front trailing and got flashes, front leading and got flashes. Now to the rear rotor. Put it on the rear trailing and got flashes, then to the rear leading... NO FLASH!!! I tired a bunch of different hand positions in case i wasn't possibly on it correctly, no success.
Now I started thinking of the problems. It could either be A: my leading coil, B: some sort of wiring, and C: the msd box. So I pulled out two spare coil sets and measured continuity on them then tried mine on the car. They all were nearly the same. I figured with the msd not having many miles on it that it was most likely the coil as it could possibly have corrosion inside the the port that you cannot see. Took the best leading coil off the spare brackets, cleaned it up further, and switched it out with the current leading. The leading on the motor, to my surprise, had no corrosion in it. Put the uim back on, other parts, and fired up the car. Ran a little different at idle. Now to check for current in the wires. Went over them all and still had no current on the rear leading wire. UGHHHH!!!!
I was pretty disappointed to say the least. So I grabbed my test light and started probing the wires to see what i had and where i had it.
The MSD consists of 4 wires; red, white, orange, and black. I cant remember off the top of my head which wire related to the other, yet wiring up an msd box for people that do not know is pretty simple. You just put the box inline with the harness.
So now i started probing each of the four wires... Long story short Mr. Black was not sending a signal to the leading coil. Pretty much case closed it was the msd. For me thats not enough so i cut the rivets off the corners of the box that seal it and started to look deeper. I saw at one corner some moisture but nothing that should have cause a short. The box is surely out of the service time so I'll just be on my way to looking for another one. Just wanted to share this if someone has similar problems in the future...
-Lance
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