*TOUCH*

iTrader: (29)

D***IT it never fails! The car was running PERFECTLY before, just drove it this morning, NO PROBLEMS. today i install my new MSD 6A unit, per Teds write-up, and everything goes great. now i go to start it up, it fires right up, the tach immediately dies and it idles like ****. if dont keep my foot on the gas and hold the idle to what SOUNDS like 1500rpm (remember, tach died) then the car dies. i get my cousin to start the car and hold the idle while i look under the hood, everything seems fine externally (minus the shitty idle) and i check to see if i have spark at either trailing coil and theres nothing from either. WTH???? literally, car just ran fine this morning...please help me. ive sold the car and am dropping it off thursday morning. just thought id try to do something nice by installing this part ahead of time instead of including it in my "extras" since it wouldnt take long. thanks in advanced

HAILERS2

You installed the MSD on?????? the Lead coil assy only. Right? Or??????

Most probably so. So I'd say the problem lies with the lead coil/MSD installation and not much of anything to do with the trail coil assy. Other than what you did to the lead is effecting the trail coil.

Got a online link to what and how you did this installation? Got a close up picture of the Lead igniter wired up???? The one on your car that is. Got the lead ignitor bolted to the frame with at least one stud/bolt? A must item.

*TOUCH*

iTrader: (29)

leading only, of course.

i have no clue what i could have done that caused this. i follows ted's writeup EXACTLY. its not like its difficult to do anyways. took all of 30 minutes. also, i dont understand what youre saying in your last sentence. what do you mean?

http://fc3spro.com/TECH/HOWTO/CDI/cdi.html

i can get a pic tomorrow (its 11pm here). its wired up EXACTLY as outlined in the above write up tho. leading igniter bolted firmly to the frame by 3 studs/nuts and ground connection is good. already checked the grounding on the trailing igniter mount as well since that is what i have seen as the most common failure resulting in this problem. thats not it in the case tho. checked main fuses too.

thanks so far hailers, youve saved me several times before, so come through for me again HAHA! also, if anyone else has had this particular issue after installing a CDI box, PLEASE lemme know how you fixed it!! thanks

*TOUCH*

iTrader: (29)

o, btw, i know i didnt explicitly mention this before:

the it will start up on demand and you can see the tach bounce during cranking and once it starts the tach IS operating for a few seconds but then dies. cut off the car and light it back up and its the same thing each time. so for some reason the trailings ARE working initially and then just immeditely shut off when the engine started.

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

Perhaps the MSD box is defective?

HAILERS2

Since you wired it like the link said..........I shouldn't have been such a post ***** and ignored this thread 'cause I don't have anything to add that is useful. I've had a MSD on all three of my cars in the past and they worked fine when wired up. Although I did remove the MSD from one car and frankly I can't tell the difference with it on the car or off (back to stk). Not a racer I suppose.

The only time I've seen trail coils come and go so to speak.......is when the battery was very low and had to be jumpered to start the car and then it wouldn't work til the car batt got up to par and then I'd shut the engine off and restart the engine and all would be well again.

I've a suggestion though. Pull the small white plugs off the trail coil assy to disable the trail coil completely. Then start the car up and see how it runs. I know the tach won't work, but will the engine still run or idle????? I'm wondering if the trail coil assy is doing all the work and the lead isn't doing much of anything. If that's the case then the car won't start up when you disable the trail coil assy by pulling it's small white plug off.

HAILERS2

Or maybe another way to figure things out would be to disconnect that white two wire connector from the LEAD coil assy and then start the car. It'll run only on the trail coil and run crummy, but it should keep running and the tach should work all the time. More or less proving the new MSD isn't working right and the new MSD was what was causing the car to die and tach to crap out at the same time.

Like the fella said, if the wiring to and from the MSD is ok, then you'd assume the MSD unit is the bad actor.

I never could convince myself to cut the ring terminals off the original ingitor assy and just used small screws and nuts to attach the wiring together ring terminal to ring terminal and shrink wrapped the screw/nuts for protection. Made it easier to remove the MSD at a later date and reconfigure to the stk. Probably looks crummy to the rest of the world but worked for me for yrs.

*TOUCH*

iTrader: (29)

ok well i ran a little test of my own....i friggin unhoked the msd and wired the coil back to stock haha. it fired right up and ran perfect like before.....i rehooked up the msd thinking may i SOMEHOW jacked up the first time.....SAME THING.....put the car back to stock....NO PROBLEMS....i take itthe MSD is fubar so im exchanging it today.....