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MSD ignition setup HELP!

Pow3rS33ka

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Hi all,

This is my first post in any forum on the internet so bear with me... I have tried to search the forum for information but I can't seem to find anyone with the same issue.

I have purchased a MSD 6AL & Blaster SS coil to replace the stock units. I have wired following the MSD guide cross referenced with the stock wiring diagram & ECU pinout.

When I try to start the car I have a go/no go situation. During crank the engine will try to fire & will run for maybe a second or two then die. The coil and MSD are firing as there is spark at the plugs fuel flow seems ok... What now?

Thanks in advance for any help
 

Immortality

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welcome to JC :)

ok, how many wires do you have on the coil? there should only be 2, the ones coming from the MSD unit.

you should have the trigger wire from the MSD unit (white wire) connected to the ignition module (brown wire i think), the +12volts ignition wire which was connected to the coil/ignition module (red wire) should be wired to the MSD unit for the switched 12v signal.

can't think of anything else right now. if that doesn't help i'll have to find my manual

magnetic pick-up wires aren't used (green/voilet)
 
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Pow3rS33ka

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Thanks immortality,

I have got only the orange & black running to the coil from the MSD, however I was trying to use the light blue/white as the trigger signal off the dizzy. I'll try tapping the white trigger into the brown (original coil -). I'll definately be checking in once I have sorted to let you know how I get on.
 

Pow3rS33ka

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Ok, no luck... in fact I lost all spark changing over to the brown wire. I will try to explain as simply as possible what I've wired to where and see if there is any further help that is out there.

MSD - Factory harness;

Heavy Red - Bat (+)
Heavy Black - Engine ground
Mag pickup - not used
Tach output - brown (does display reading on tach)
Orange - Coil (+)
Black - Coil (-)
Red - Pink (switched 12v - ex-coil (+)) & White/Black (dizzy (+)
White - White (EST output from ECU) & White/Violet (dizzy reference input signal ECU) & Light Blue/White (Dizzy signal)

Factory Loom;
Grey/Red (dizzy (-) - Black (ground)

I think that covers it. My only thought from here was to try installing the MSD dizzy PN 85891 (ready to run) to allow for mechanical timing adjustment rather than ECU controled. Any further thoughts?
 

delcowizzid

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all you do is leave everything stock apart from the coil wiring and setup 6AL in the instructions for points trigger mode with the old coil negative triggering the msd box
 

Immortality

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you shouldn't have anything connected to the dizzy

you just want to use the 2 wires that came off the coil. +12v (red) from the coil to the switched +12v wire (red) for the MSD, brown (-ve) wire from the coil to the white trigger wire on the MSD unit.

i wonder if it's done any damage trying to connect to the dizzy?

if the MSD is wired up correctly, if you take the white trigger wire and earth it and then lift it off the earth connection it should create a spark (would need to have the ignition switched on)

where have you got the tacho output connected to?
 

Pow3rS33ka

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OK thanks guys, I have found the errors I made and I'm rectifiing now, however I think I may hav damaged the dizzy as after completing some checks I seem to have no signal and got an error code 41 'cankshaft sensor' so I'll keep you posted once I get it running again.
 

Pow3rS33ka

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Thanks for your help here guys, I have got the VN fired up and running again thanks to your input on finding my wiring issue. Cheers
 
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