ignition woes...

[Anonymous]

Hey guys
Well I’ve tried just about everything…
I have a duraspark dizzy, blaster 2F coil, and MSD 6A box. Well, the coil began to ark uncontrollably between the coil tower and the (+) and (–) terminals. Then, suddenly, the entire ignition system shut down. I bought a new distributor because I found that if I moved the dizzy a little it would fire up for a few seconds. Well, I put that in, and nothing happened. I then bought a new coil. Still nothing. Does this mean that my 6A is bad?? I now it does look like that, but I find it hard to believe. I’ve only had it for 6 months and not even during the hot summer months. Anyway, I’ve got fire all the way to the coil but not to the plugs. Does the spark travel from the coil to the 6A AND THEN to the distributor? Because I’ve gotten the coil to ark between the tower and terminals again but still no power. I’m positive that the dizzy is in right. I set it on TDC after the intake valve closes. And I know that I am 180 degrees out because it is not shooting fire out of the carburetor. I don’t get it. Will the car run with the valve cover off?? Because I am trying to get it to fire before I put it all back together so that I don’t have to tear it all back down again.
I really appreciate you guys’ help!

 

[CoupeBoy]

I'll give this a stab,
The only time I have ever seen spark arcing from wires to ground was when the wires themselved had too much resistance built up or the plugs had gotten to a state where it was easier for the spark to jump to a different ground (engine for example) then the "ground strap" at the end of the plug. How old are your wires? Most people check them with an ohm meter, there is a measurement (so many ohms of resistance per foot/inch) but I cant remember it right now.

If it were me I would go out and either pickup a Ford Blue grommet ignition box or a GM ignition module (about 12-15$ each) and try to use that instead of the MSD for diagnostic purposes.

Fire all the way to the coil but not the plugs, could be wires OR possibly the rotor is not seated properly (or forgot to put it in..) You say its not getting spark to the plugs and then you say that you know the dizzy is not 180° out, but if you dont have any spark then you wont have any backfire.

You should not be running volage from the coil through the MSD, it should get the signal from the dizzy and trigger the coil, but NO high voltage through it (the MSD box)

Of course you can run it with the valve cover off, but it could get messy pretty quickly.

-ron

 

[MustangSix]

The spark jumped to the terminals because that was the path of least resistance. That means your plug gaps are too large, the plugs are bad, cap/rotor are bad, or the wires have too much resistance. It's possible that the voltage spike to your MSD may have fried it, but I can't be sure.

Try reducing the plug gaps, inspecting the cap, rotor and wires, then let us know what you found.

 

[61Futura]

Replace the coil wire & hope the 6A box isn't damaged from the arc hitting the - terminal of the coil. Thats my guess.