I was coming home last night, and my car started missing and shut off. Checked connections on everything electrical, got back in and it started back up. I drove for about 15 miles and it started missing again and shut off and would not re-start. There is no spark coming from the coil. also, about 200 miles ago I had an msd coil explode (blew the top off). Now I have no spark from this coil, coincidence maybe? This was a blaster coil I had laying around a few years. I am running an msd 6al ignition system. I checked voltage, and with the key on there is no voltage to the positive side of the coil. I am not very good with electrical, and I am not very familiar with the msd6al. I was wondering if someone knew where to start checking for problems. There is 12 volts going into the msd 6al, but there doesn't seem to be voltage coming out accept for 4.6v coming out of a purple wire going to the distributor. If anyone has any ideas, or if you know what wires should have voltage, I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

Most all MSD boxes including yours are capacitive discharge. They do not store energy in the ignition coil and do not put voltage to the coil when not cranking or running. When the coil is fired the MSD box dumps over 400 volts to the coil and uses the coil as a step-up transformer to generate the spark. I would check the coil resistance and if it's nominal I would send the MSD box to MSD for diagnosis and repair.

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Joshua

Yep Bad MSD box. Ive seen this a couple of times.
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Do you happen to have an idea what the resistance reading should be, or will it very with each brand of coil? Thanks for the help

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

You'll have to look up your specific coil.

OK, Summit Racing shows us:

MSD Ignition 8202 - MSD Blaster 2 Ignition Coils

Coil Wire Attachment Female/Socket
Coil Style Canister
Primary Resistance 0.700 ohms
Coil Internal Construction Oil-filled
Coil Color Red
Maximum Voltage 45,000 V
Turns Ratio 100:1
Secondary Resistance 4.70K ohms
Inductance 8.0 mH
Peak Current 140 mA
Spark Duration 350 uS
Mounting Bracket Included No
Coil Wire Included No
Ballast Resistor Included No
Coil Shape Round
Diameter (in) 2.125 in.
Height (in) 6.000 in.
Quantity Sold individually.

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Joshua

You have to have a REAL good meter to check a coil for anything other than an open circuit.
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Thanks for the information guys. I do have a good multimeter, so I will give that a try tomorrow, and probably end up replacing the msd box. Thanks for the help.

_________________
Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

Ryan
Dont throw the old MSD box away. There are several of us on the board that tinker with broken ones, including myself.
Thanks,
Frank

_________________
Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Ok, after I test and make sure thats the problem, I will let you know. My msd box is only about 1 1/2 yrs old, and was used maybe 5-7,000 miles, so I would hope there would be something useful on it still. I will let you know.

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

Ryan,

Send the box back to MSD. They will fix it. If it's really only been in service that short of time it shouldn't cost you anything except maybe one-way shipping.

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Joshua

Ok I will do that. I knew it only had a one year warranty, but it is worth a try because it really has very little use on it at all. Thanks for the help

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

After re-reading my post I wanted to clarify that MSD will fix the box, but they will probably charge you if you can't prove that it's less than a year old. I repaired Charlie's old MSD-7 box which MSD refused to fix. MSD claimed that it was too old and they couldn't get parts.

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Joshua

Ok, Thats kinda what I thought, I will probably just send it in and see what they can do. Thanks

_________________
Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best