I Have A 302 With A Msd 6al Box For Ignition And Laetly It Has Been Giving Me Troubles. It Will Start Fine Then Immediately Quit. No Stumble No Cough Just Shuts Down Like It Has No Spark. Last Night It Did It Again And After 10 Min Of Fussing It Restarts Out Of The Blue. Running Down The Road Pulled To A Light, Shuts Off Again. Again No Sputter No Stumble Just Off. Immediatly Refires And Goes Ok Then While Rolling About 25 It Does It A Third Time. Restarts Fine And Runs The Rest Of The Way Home Fine. Checked Today And I Do Have Good Spark Coming From The Coil To The Distributer But Am At A Loss For An Explanation. Usually If It Is Fuel Related It Will Stumble Before Stalling But This Is An Immediate Shut Down Like You Pulled The Coil Wire. Any Ideas??? B.t.w.-- Carb Is Edelbrock 650 Distributer Is M.s.d. Plug Wires Are Taylor 8.5mm Everything Is Less Than 1 Year Old.
Does the coil get really hot? If so, maybe the coil is going bad,, maybe the main power wire to the box itself losing power? bad ign switch,,, check the ground wire,, maybe the pick up in the distributor is going bad. Chad
the only part i haven't replaced in the last year is the coil. i am going to replace it this week just to be safe. i already checked the power to the box and it is sending full power. i will double check on the ground wire. i hope the pickup isn't going bad already since it is less than a year old.
When the coil goes bad, they will work just fine till they get warmed up,,,,, then, problems start. Die without warning,,, Id put a light bulb on the power lead,,, run it, if that light goes out anytime,,, your losing power. The ground should go to the battery, or where the ground wire hooks to the block,, not on the body,,, the ground can short out if there is not a good ground from the engine to the body,, a ground strap can help,, but best to go right to the block where the cable is. Check your solenoid connections, Ive had the ol maverick lose the ground on it, I ran a ground right to it from the battery to the mounting bolts. Are you running a tach? does the needle ever roam or act erratic? Chad
It sounds like the coil to me. Just like Chad said, when a coil is going out, they will often not show any symptoms until they get warmed up. Dave
well it sounds like a concensus on a bad coil. i will replace it this week. chad== i have not seen any erratic movement on the tach. the ground is currently going to the body. i will have to run a new wire to ground to the block. the battery is in the trunk so that is to far to run. thanks for the help, i knew i could count on this group.
Ive had tachs short out and kill the engine,,, but if the needle is steady, probably not what it is,, Look at a coil from a later model mustang, T-bird,, etc etc,, like from 87-93,, the EFI computer puts out a spark just like a MSD will be,, and I belive can handle what your doing,,, When I built the harness for my 69.5,, I had the whole induction and ign system right here on the kitchen table,, I had my wife standing close by, and I said hey watch this!! That coil sent a spark out about 10 inches long from it arching around,, she bout got zapped! Just could not belive the spark that coil produced! Chad
i went out last night and got the MSD blaster ss coil. cost was a little higher than some but it will look as good as it performs. should get it in tonight or tomorrow. thanks for the info.
Which trigger method are you using on the MSD. The Magnetic Trigger (Purple and Green) combo wire or the white wire. I have had the pins on the Magnetic trigger connector back out of the connector thus giving an intermitant problem. You can test the ignition by pulling the coil wire and placing it about 1/2 inch from ground (not near a fuel sorce please) and with the key on (do not crank the engine) short across the Purple and Green wires or if using the white wire for the trigger simply tap the white wire to ground. Each time you should see a spark jump. If no spark replace the coil and test again. If still no spark then your MSD box is likely bad.
Is it a points distributor, or electronic pick up? I was thinking the white wire was used in the points, and the two wire plug was for electronic pickup,,, Chad
i double checked today when i put the new coil in and i was mistaken on the wire, i am using the 2 wires. ( i know i am a flake ). well i think i found the problem. when i moved the ground to the block i had a lot of trouble getting the bolt loose where it was grounded to the body. turns out the bolt was stripped and the back nut was just spinning . that was probably why i was randomly cutting off. i went ahead and changed the coil anyway since the old one was at least 5 years old. thanks for the info and tips.
i had the same exact problem on my car when i had the 170 in it .. i replaced a crap load of stuff, one day i replaced the solenoid, coil, and positive and negative wires and took off the battery to block ground wire cleaned the connection and reattached it i have never had it happen since... but since then i have done the 302 swap and complete ignition upgrade to MSD i will say that the coil was the problem, but i cant say for sure.. all i know, it happened to me and i spent over $100 tracking it down, and eventually it went away
well guys i found the problem. after replacing the coil i took it out to the local show with part-time and it started stalling again. we played around with it and it finally restarted went on down to old town and parked it. several hours later it made it through the cruise then quit again. this time would not refire. while checking under hood i put my hand on the msd box and about received 2nd degree burns. PUPPY WAS HOT!!!!! well we let it cool down again and raced it home. checked it out the next day and it will fire fine when cool but it runs bad. as soon as the box gets hot, down goes the spark. has anyone seen this before? i checked the ground several days earlier and it had come loose. i tightened it down but was the damage already done?
Its fried. MSD has a pretty good warranty if its a year old,, I got one replaced that was 2 years old after talking to the sales rep for a while,, Yeah, if any kind of short, or loose connections will fry them everytime. Chad
