MSD 6AL, Blaster II Coil, Pro-Billet Dist. - No spark????

[wiedemab]

I just want to get a sanity check on my issues here. As listed in the title I have the following components on a small block Chevy.

MSD:
6AL
Blaster II Coil
Pro-Billet Distributor

They are wired as such.

MSD 6AL -
large red wire to battery positive
large black wire to battery negative
small red wire - to key on accy source

orange wire to coil positive
black wire to coil negative

purple and green wire with plug-end is connected to the magnetic pickup plug on the distributor

I've had the engine running in the bare chassis with this exact wiring configuration, but now that I've wired the entire truck and I'm trying to start it...........well - - - it no worky!!!!

What I've tested - -

Positive power feed to 6AL box - good
power feed from 6AL to coil - - Not Good....this should have power when the key in the "On" position correct? It does not.

If I test the coil power while cranking I get a slight voltage reading, but nothing significant (< 1V). This leads me to believe that my 6AL box is bad. Does anyone else have any other suggestions.

I'm hoping that someone chimes in and tells me that I'm an idiot and I forgot to do "XXXXXX" and that will fix my problems. If not, I guess I'll pick up another 6AL and give it a try.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Brandon

[wiedemab]

I called MSD tech support and was not impressed. I realize that my 6AL is way outside of the warranty and was looking for someone to help me troubleshoot and possibly give me some pointers on how to fix it if I were to want to replace an internal fuse etc.

What I got was a "canned" response of "you need to send it back to us and we'll see if it can be fixed. If so, it'll be anywhere from $20 - $80".

I got the impression that this is such a common occurrence that they have a card on their desk that says - - if someone calls with a Bad "X", you simply say "Y" and thank them and move on. I would have felt better if he would have acknowledged that this is somewhat of a problem with these items (if that is in fact the case) and there could be several things that may be the issue and spelled out the possibilities.

I'm just going to buy another Ignition box - from someone else.

[MarkM66]

IMO, I'd avoid those boxes on anything you plan on driving very far from home.

It's just one more thing that can leave you stranded. Not to mention something that's unnecessary.

Just get a ready to run dist. and sell yours to recoup the cost.

[wedged]

quite often, low battery voltage will cause an MSD ignition to not fire. Even if it seems to crank ok.

[camcojb]

did you try this?

http://www.msdignition.com/page.aspx?id=3206

[NovaBlue71]

Brandon, we have a extra msd 6al box, pro-billet, msd coil we can ship it to ya if you want to try it and see if that fixs your problem. Let me know if we can help. Joe