She won't go......

mcmillal

Well-known member
Well, the car has been fantastic and all of a sudden, she just quits on my. My initial investigation is revealing that I don't have any spark. Makes sense. No spark, no go. I have a DS II setup, MSD 6A control unit, and MSD coil. I thought originally my MSD box had died on me. Then I read that the magnetic pickup in the dizzy my not be working. I have not tried the simplest thing of swapping out the coil. I guess I'm looking for anyone else that has experienced this with a similar setup or any advice as to what the most likely cause of my problem is. The car turns over fine, just never starts.

.........Cheers, Alex
 
Between the orange and purple you should read 400-800 ohms. Ground to orange or purple 70K+. That will test the pickup. Primary on coil, .8-1.6 ohms, Secondary 7700-10500 ohms. Of course this is usless if you have no meter. In run position should have 8-9volts feeding coil, full 12v in start position. Module, you're on your own.
 
While you are testing the orange and purple wires with your ohm meter flex them around and make sure the reading does not change. Also if you have a hand vacuum pump (or can suck really hard) operate the vacuum advance and look for the reading to change. It will change a little if it gets close to one of the poles but it should not go real high ohms or open at any time. Sometimes those wires get internal cracks so when the vacuum advance operates you loose the connection. It was not a real common problem on the Fords but is possible.

Is your coil or MSD box physically hot when it dies?
 
have you checked to see that the distributor is still spinning? the roll pin on its drive gear has been known to fail. not hard to fix if you look for it, but not something you would think of if you hadn't heard it was prone to happening.

haven't played with MSD systems enough to give too much more help myself.
 
Hi All,

So here's the latest. I am seeing spark being sent from the coil to the distributor, but I guess not to the plugs. I used one of those inline light testers that flickers when you turn the car over and it did flicker. I did get a new magnetic pickup for my DS II, but now I'm wondering if I got the right one. My dizzy does not have the vacuum advance. Is there a different pick up for non-vacuum advance dizzies? Also, maybe I don't have things lined up properly with regards to timing. I did remove the dizzy when I replace the mag pickup. Is it possible I did not re-install it correctly?

Thoughts anyone?

..............Cheers, Alex
 
Is control box wired right? Red wire to run on ign, sw. white wire to start on sol.
Bring engine to number one on damper is rotor pointing to the number cap tower?
 
Yeah wow! are you trying to use an 86 or newer EFI computer controlled distrib with the DSII box? Not going to work you will need a vacuum advance unit DSII distrib
 
Thing is, he says it did run before and he's replaced like for like, visually.

I'd temporarily bypass the MSD box and use a cheap module, just to see - or if you can borrow a known good MSD that would also help.

Putting the coil lead onto a grounded single "test" plug will give a good indication of spark ferocity (or otherwise).
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.
Firstly, I believe everything is wired correctly. I will verify the rotor is pointing in the right location when #1 is TDC. Secondly, about the replacement magnetic pickup for the DS II. I was wondering if there are two different versions, one for a DS II with vacuum advance and one for a DS II without vacuum advance. The replacement magnetic pickup I got is an aftermarket from Advance Auto for a 78 Fairmont DS II which I'm pretty sure is what I have. Finally, in the beginning I actually thought my MSD box went on me, so I have even replaced that. Now I am getting some activity as I mentioned. The tester I have connected between the coil and the DS II is flashing when I turn the engine over, but the car won't start.

That's where I at right now.

............Cheers, Alex
 
mcmillal":3p0um43l said:
.... I am seeing spark being sent from the coil to the distributor, but I guess not to the plugs.

If it's making spark at the coil but not getting to the plugs then the module, pickup, etc. are all ok and there is a problem in the rotor or cap.
 
Well, it turned out to be the coil after all. I was using a MSD Blaster SS coil. I replaced it with another Blaster SS coil and VOILA! She started right up. I really didn't think much could go wrong with the coil. But sure enough the simpliest fix was the last thing I tried and it worked. I even put the old magnetic pickup back in the dizzy. She's all good now.

............Alex
 
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