Ok have my 85 gsl. Nikki 4 barrel that is rebuilt and a msd direct fire ignition on it and was great for 3 months. Just before I parked it for winter it wouldn't start. Figured out ignition wasn't working so I hooked factory junk back up and it would fire but wouldn't idle and sputters and bogs and today shot flames out of the carb. I didn't adjust any timing at all just the msd box so I don't understand wtf is going on? I'm going to do a compression test tomorrow but I hope it isn't the motor.

 

your pickups are wired backwards, or are touching! I dont mean that L is swapped for T, I mean the stock ignition modules have 2 tiny blade connectors that go into the dist. If they got swapped, or the area where they used to plug in is damaged(common in MSD "upgrade" butchering) , it will run like a piece of crap.

Mine did exactly that wayyy back when I first started rotaries and followed a guide here on the forums. I replaced the dist. and went back to stock and its been fine since. Like 10k miles of driving since then without a sputter.

 

Well I hope that's all it is. I can get a distributor out of my local junk yard. I'll have to see what I can do. Thanks for the reply!

 

I plan on going back to the msd once I get a new box but I at least want to be able to drive it when this bullshit salt an snow are gone!

 

Checke all the wires and seemed fine. Gona have to try a different distributor?

 

check the engine, and you didn't also do a direct fire modification on the trailings i hope.. by wires did you also check your plug wire routing? if the wires are crossed then the resulting early ignition will kick the engine back and fire out the carb.

 

How did you hook the MSD up to the dist.? Did you splice into the red/green wires in the dist. or plug it into the small female blade connector slots where the pickups used to plug in?

 

the msd does not need the ignitor, so you remove the J109's from the distributor. without an MSD the J109's are needed to produce the voltage needed to kick over the coils. i'm not sure if the MSD can use a signal from the J109's but i would be surprised if it would work if he had either of those scenarios backwards.

the problem is probably either very simple or a lack of care in the trailings compromised the engine which led to the current problem.

 

Are your high voltage coil wires backwards??

 

Ok I fixed it! Thanks for all the input guys! I did splice into the red and green for the msd. had the green and red wire crossed and after that was fixed then it was majorly flooded. Took all plugs out and floored carb and turned it over for a few then let it sit for a while and poored a little oil down and cranked again then put plugs in and she fired right up! Drove it to town and ran like a champ.

 

I made the exact mistake almost 8 years ago lol. Mine did the same thing, I knew thats what it was :P

 

Thanks again man. After msd **** out I must have wired stock **** wrong. Still need a new msd box though. That direct fire ignition is like night and day.

 

Is it really? I never really noticed a difference

 

Well I coul feel a huge differance. It would pull hard all the way threw redline where stock it didn't rev as well in the higher rpms. But maybe my stock ignition sucked?
What coils did u use? I ran the msd 6a box with two massive accel super coils for leads and a msd blaster could for trails and 8.5mm wires with the leading plugs gaped huge. I got it done a drove down the road and couldn't beleive the power I gained. But again maybe the stock ignition was tired?

 

My stock coils were junk, so I swapped out for MSD canister coils (black hi vibration) and noticed a difference there.. But my stock coils were breaking up and causing the engine to miss beyond 6k rpm

 

Mine never misses but with the dfi it pulls hard all the way to red line where stock it didn't pull as hard once u get up past 5k. I'm going to figure out whats up moth my box or get a new one.

 

They burn up a lot. I had 2 on my car (leading AND trailing) and the leading box always burnt out first. I even swapped my "good" one from the trailing side still only got a few months of daily driving out of one. Mine were rebuilt on the cheap by MSD until I finally sold them. They were convinced that I had some sort of defect because they thought their product was a little hardier. But every time Jim would rebuild one of them, he said it was just worn out. Something to think about...

 

Hmmm. Yeah mine was used but did go out in a few months. Is rather have it always run lol.