69 Superbee 440 no spark(complex problem I fear)

[justavillain]

I bought this car about 3 weeks ago and had to tow it home... The owner said "it ran when parked". Of course it didn't start. I got it home and went to work.

I tested the old msd 6a box no spark per the tests msd said. Now it has a new 6al box and produced spark at the coil. No spark at the plugs. So I saw the distributor was not looking fresh so I got a new one.... Still no spark at plugs

New msd 6al, new proform distributor magnetic pickup, new accel super shock coil, new plug.

The coil produces a spark, the distributor cap transfers the spark, the rotor has continuity so it should transfer the spark. The rotor does spin when turning over. The #1 and #7 plug wires checked. I grounded it on a few different bolts and even the ground side of the battery nothing.

I saw online that the 6al box should flicker green when it gets a signal from the distributor and it's not flashing green when turning over. The resistor on the fire wall is visually ok. It is being used to supply the 12 ING wire for the 6al.

The previous owner said it did have this problem before but doesn't know what was done to get it running.

I'm thinking it's a ground issue of some kind. I'm sure there's more that I tried and forgot.

 

[silversedan]

how are you supplying the 12 volts to the red msd wire? you say from the resistor,but you have to have voltage with the key on AND cranking, the best way to do this is to use the original wire that went to the positive side of the coil , it's usually dark blue. hook that to the small red wire from the msd , the only wires going to the coil should be the orange and black wires from the msd. orange is positive.

 

[justavillain]

The msd box has a crimped wire that goes directly to the battery for the ground and power

The old 6a box had a different color set up and had the orange/black wires. The new 6al has a loomed red/black for the coil and it is the only wires to it. Then a 10g red and black wire for the battery, then a loomed/plug purple and green wire for the distributor. I cut the plug off the old one and made an adapter like the gm hei one that was supplied by msd in the 6al box for the Chrysler 2 pin plug. The red wire is going to the resistor in the same place the old 6a box had it going to. The gray wire is wrapped and stored. Same with the white wire.

 

[Shorthorse]

Did you consider removing the ballast resistor? It's not needed anymore.

 

[justavillain]

The resistor is bypassed, new plug nothing.

 

[coloradodave]

I'm sure you know this but did you follow the troubleshooting instructions on page 9 of the MSD-6AL instructions? Since the MSD box is factory tested before shipping, I'd go through those 6 steps and see what the results are. Hopefully something easy.

 

[justavillain]

Correct I tried all those and no dice

 

[coloradodave]

In the 'Checking for spark' test, step #5, did you get spark?

 

[moparjohnny]

In the 'Checking for spark' test, step #5, did you get spark?

i had same problem i replaced spark plugs and wires,replace my ground wire from distributor to coil,recharged my battery.check your battery for correct volts,i also found out that my alternator was not charging my battery.make sure you have all your wires connected back up to voltage regulator,ballast resistor.i replaced my ecu orange box with a dual point distributor and no problems since then.

 

[coloradodave]

MSD states that you can't use a digital or dial-back timing light with their boxes.

 

[justavillain]

The reluctor wheel was much farther away than what the old distributor had. It was adjustable, so I adjusted it to 0.010 like the old one had.

Then we found that the firing order was all sorts of messed up. Straightened that out.

When I installed the new distributor I pre indexed the rotor/drive pin to be like the old one but since I was doing it off the "1" cylinder I dropped it in. Well I have now idea what the old distributor was timed to. So I am not surprised it didn't start and it's back firing through the carb. I loosened the hold down bracket and adjusted the timing so the vacuum advance swung towards the radiator (forgive me for not knowing if that was advancing or retarding) but it was not as violent of a cough.

So new wires and reinstall the distributor and I'll report back!

 

[justavillain]

According to proform the air gap for a magnetic pick up/reluctor wheel is 0.008 and 0.010

No new update right now been too busy with work. This weekend for sure

 

[justavillain]

I got the car running and down the road!

 

[joseph p.]

good work ,and troubleshooting.

 

[justavillain]

This thread can be locked if the mods want. I got a solution and posted along the way so if another user has this problem they might be able to work through it

Thanks for all the help and support! I'll be sure to keep posting