Question about MSD6AL and HEI Distributor

[NewUser]

i installed an MSD 6AL box on my 77 K5 and hooke dit up according to instructions...first distributor i used had been setup for dirt track racing(light springs and weights)...when timing was set at 10* and vacuum advance hooked back up it pulled all advance in at one time

swapped that distributor for a new one from work and instaled it, hooked everything up with just stock module(to get truck running) everything was good....came back about 8 hours later and no fire, no spark

tested module and tested bad so swapped in new module, viola! problem solved(so i thought)

drove truck home(finally yay!!) with stock HEI hooked up, did fine and drove great....went to work next day and left truck sitting at home due to loud exhaust that i was going to get fixed after work

came home and experienced same no fire, no spark...took distributor back to work and tested new module...tested fine so swapped for another new distributor...went home and installed it...truck has been running great for past 3 days now

my question is can the MSD box possibly burn out the magnetic pickup in the distributor or did i just get a faulty distributor to begin with?

im wanting to hook the MSD back up but not at the expense of having to swap yet another distributor into the truck...engine has about 60 miles on it so far so i dont wanna screw anything up

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[wasted wages]

Maybe something is feeding back thru the module when the key is off....
do you have a tach wired in ??
double and triple check your wiring...

 

[NewUser]

Maybe something is feeding back thru the module when the key is off....

if that was the case then the newest dizzy i put in would be dead in the water too wouldnt it?

do you have a tach wired in ??

nope no tach...bought one to install but killed it before i read that i needed an adapter of osme sort to use it with MSD box

double and triple check your wiring...

wiring is all run and everything is hooked up accordingly im using the stock HEI for now til i figure out if the MSD is a pickup killer or not

 

[mrk5]

The ignition box just hops up the juice from the coil and it receives a signal from the distributor, so I don't think it could fry the distributor.

Do any of the HEI's require a ballast resistor? I remember my old Mopar distributor did.

 

[dcubb]

So, are you triggering the MSD through the stock hei module? If so, get rid of the module and trigger it solely with the oem pickup coil. I've always ran my Crane HI6's this way with no issues. The MSD6al can be wired this way as well. Just one less component that could fail.

Don't get me wrong, the HEI modules are typically pretty damned reliable, but there's no need to run one with a aftermarket ignition box on an older HEI distributor.

 

[NewUser]

So, are you triggering the MSD through the stock hei module? If so, get rid of the module and trigger it solely with the oem pickup coil. I've always ran my Crane HI6's this way with no issues. The MSD6al can be wired this way as well. Just one less component that could fail.

Don't get me wrong, the HEI modules are typically pretty damned reliable, but there's no need to run one with a aftermarket ignition box on an older HEI distributor.

NO NO NO NO...im not running the MSD with the HEI module...i gutted the dizzy of everything except the pickup and in the last dizzy the pickup died...im just wondering if its possible for the MSD to have been the culprit that killed the pickup or could it just have been a bad pickup to begin with

 

[dcubb]

Ok, just threw me off with the mention of swapping out modules in the first post. If the msd unit is wired correctly, it should not have any power present anywhere in the ignition system with the key off. That said, IMO there's no way the msd could "damage" the magnetic pickup with the truck not running. I would confirm 110% that the wiring is right. Who know's, maybe you did get a defective pickup. Only one, I'd say probably, more than one, very unlikely.

 

[NewUser]

thats what i was wondering....guess ill hook the MSD back up tomorrow and see what happens