ToddMcF2002
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I think my MSD 6AL just died - charging the battery to make sure but I have no desire to spend another $300 to replace it. Is reverting to a points distributor viable these days? Who sells point kits?
Going back to points
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Sorry for your loss.....Not to be too facetious, but the old Confucius saying: "fancy gizmos don't work and if they do work, they don't work for long and will stop working at the most inopportune time and cost the most dollars to fix", may apply. See Halifax Hops...he'll be able to recommend and furnish what you need....give him a call or e-mail.
BOB RENTON
ToddMcF2002
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I bought the car last year and inherited the MSD with its billet distributor. Not really a fan of the box being mounted partially visible under the glove box or the red distributor so I'm ok with dumping it. I'm charging the battery now because I'm falling below 10V when cranking so the thing might still be alive - but that in itself has me questioning its value.
I have a MSD unit on one of my cars and it will not crank when the battery is down. I read somewhere that this could be caused by a wrong ballast resistor. I'm not a fan of MSD and haven't looked into it as I to plan on getting rid of it.
ToddMcF2002
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Yeah I just finished charging the battery and I went from 9.6V while cranking to 10.9V which should have worked. It didn't. I tried jumping the magnetic pickup per the troubleshooting guide and that didn't work either. I'll try a new coil tomorrow. But this is ridiculous. Why add stupid complex stuff that can fail to a simple car that worked just fine?
ToddMcF2002
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So all I need to undo this nonsense is to restore the blue wire to the left side of my ballast resistor to coil(+), run a ground from the distributor to coil(-) and my tach to coil(-). And source the 440 distributor of course. Sound right? Doesn't appear to be anything else to it...
If you have a charger with a high amp cranking setting 100-125 amp, put it on that and see if it will crank. If not try jumper cables. When mine quit on me the battery voltage was 11.9V. The engine turned over great, but would not start. Jumper cables from another car and it started just fine.
Geoff 2
Well-Known Member
Couldn't think of more backwards step than reverting to points. Modern cars have 7+year warranties because they are reliable..........& they don't have points.
Points start to retard the ign from rubbing block wear, causing mileage & performance loss.
Best & cheapest fix is to get a GM 4 pin HEI for a few bucks & use your present dist to trigger it. The coil you have maybe ok to use with HEI.
Points start to retard the ign from rubbing block wear, causing mileage & performance loss.
Best & cheapest fix is to get a GM 4 pin HEI for a few bucks & use your present dist to trigger it. The coil you have maybe ok to use with HEI.
ToddMcF2002
Well-Known Member
yes I thought about that last night I was going to look into the GM unit to see if it would work with the MSD billet which I assume is good. The magnetic pickup should be comparable?
I took a MSD box and Chrysler electronic distributor off my Hemi when I bought it. I have no use for them. - screws the tach up, funky wiring changes, seller had to put a new box on it to get it on the van, etc. MSD - May Suddenly Die (at any moment).
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When I aquired the GTX, some 30+ years ago, it had an MSD system, the kind with the Mopar 5 pin plug on one end of the box (5C ?). The interconnect wiring was strange, supplying 12 volts, non-switched, directly ftom the start relay and a Mopar electronic distributor. The system was functional, but I inquired to MSD for a spare box. They said: just send us the box and we'll repair it, send it back to you for a flat $40 fee, with a 2-3 week turn around time. Since I did not want to leave the car along the road or where ever it quit, for the 3 weeks wait, I secured an origional Prestolite dual point distributor, at a local swap meet, rebuilt it and reverted back to the old reliable points system, removing all the MSD stuff, depositing it in the round file and never looked back.....BTW....as a result, the world has NOT come to a end as a result of my transgression.....
BOB RENTON
MSD stuff is really bad now. Actually, all the post 2000 electronics are a crap shoot these days.
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