I bought me an MSD 6A off ebay to install on my car. I used the How-to on the 2nd gen. RX-7 resource. Got it all installed but it wont work, like the box itself is bad. Can that happen and can it be fixed?

Well on the write-up it mentions all the wires except for a wire coming out the back composed of a green wire and a purple wire woven together and into a connector. Does anybody know what that is for?

 

i can't recall since its been awhile since i've played around with an MSD box but i seem to remember the green wire being for a tach hookup of some kind that mostly goes unused. as for the box, if you think its bad, call MSD. i have heard of them replacing the box for you even if you don't have the original warranty. just dont cut the wires short.

 

Heres a pic of what I bought.

MSD

The thing Im talking about is in the upper left hand corner of the pic.

 

why would you buy a used 6a, they are pretty cheap to begin with and the stock ignition system is very strong to begin with. I did not notice any gains with the 6a or crain on my TII.

 

my MSD6AL box which i got used does not work either
(driving on trailings sucks...lots of boost and no power)

 

The thin green and purple wire is for direct connection to a hall effect/magnetic trigger input. MSD warns about connecting both the purple/green and red/white leads, as this is at least going to confuse the unit. The purple/green leads take a much lower level powered signal than the red/white leads.

This is why I do NOT recommend buying used units. At $150 brand new from Summit Racing, it's not worth the gamble. These things die all the time.

You can try and open the unit up, but it's no guarantee you'll be able to find the problem. The majority of the time, a wire trace is blown, and it's obvious. I've had a 75% chance of fixing most of them, as it's usually a short or wrong wiring hook-up, which blows circuit board traces. I've been working in hIGGI's 6AL, and I can't find anything obvious.

-Ted