msd distrubitor question

[66FAIRLANE]

Very cool looking XY jb. Love the way it sits.

[Jb427]

Very cool looking XY jb. Love the way it sits.

Thanks was alot of fun should of never sold it there worth a fortune now.

[fryedaddy]

i have a new pickup to put in,i already had it,and i have a new coil on the way friday.if one of those dont fix it it s probably the box.the coil tested bad,i had a couple stock 50 year old coils but they tested bad too.

[fryedaddy]

i put a new coil on today and it still wont fire up.i unplugged the coil wire from the dist cap and put a spark plug in it.i turned the engine over and the plug would spark one time only.then after s few more tries it would spark again.or if i turned the key off and back on it would spark one more time.is this normal or should i try something different.i hate to keep throwing parts at it.any ideas?

[fekbmax]

What "box" are you running ? How old is it ? Is it an older analog box or newer digital box ?

[fryedaddy]

im running a digital 6al.its 3 or 4 years old.im going to buy a new box,what should i buy,i have seen videos of people throwing the digital 6al in the trash can.anyone know of a good box that dont cost a fortune.

[GerryP]

If your 6AL box is working now, then it's working.  As for any other boxes, any box used for electronic ignitions can work as long as you wire it properly.  There are instructions online for any box you could imagine.  You can use a Ford Duraspark box, or even a GM HEI module.  The HEI is better because it has the ability to increase dwell.  But you have to use the factory module or an Accel module to get the dwell benefit.

[fryedaddy]

i unplugged the wire going to the magnetic pick up that goes to the distributor. i unplugged the coil wire from the cap and put a sparkplug in it and i turned the key on, i shorted out the wire going to the pickup from the box and it would make one little spark then you could short it out several more times with no spark, it should spark every time i short it out.i think this indicates a bad box even though the box lights up when you turn the key on. is the original 6al better than the digital 6al?i drive mostly on the street,but its usually short drives near home,run it through the gears a few times and put it up.i dont think i need the features of some of the high end race boxes but i would like to have one that will work good for a fairly hot street motor.

[cjshaker]

Where did you short the pickup wires, or did you just jump them? Did you watch the video I posted, and what I wrote?

[fryedaddy]

i watched the video,very interesting,i tried it like you did and i tried it like the msd video says,either way it would not spark ,and if it did spark it was one little spark then nothing

[cjshaker]

That certainly sounds like the box, but I'm always hesitant to say something absolutely when it comes to electronics. Unfortunately, the only real test is shelling out money for a backup in case of a failure, or in your case, to determine if it's the actual cause.

[GerryP]

It sounds like the capacitor has failed.  Obviously a CD box with a bad cap is just a box.

[fryedaddy]

My son is a electronics nut.i gave him my digital 6al and he took the back off and the first thing he did was smell the capacitors,at least 5 of them in there,he said one or more of them smelled burnt,he has all that stuff in stock in his shop to fix it. he is going to test everything and replace anything bad or questionable.i told him to film it,especially if he is successful.

[Towd56]

Had a fairly new 6al digital box go bad recently. Began by running funny and then a no start condition. Replaced it with an older one and I am currently waiting for MSD to repair the new one. There is also a sequence to view what the red led light is doing when you turn the key- which can point you into a general direction of what may be bad.

[fryedaddy]

i ran all those tests on it.the box still goes through its sequence,but tests bad.i believe the rust in the distributor caused it to fry everything from the box,coil,cap and rotor.i have a spare box but it is bad too,conked out about 4 years ago that i could send back,i just never got around to it.  has anyone ran a msd street box?