I hooked-up my MSD today using the wiring diagram on the back. I unhooked the old modulator and this is how it went...The orange wire to pos coil, small red to pos coil, small black to neg coil, big red to bat side of solinoid, big black to ground, white not used, violet to orange and green to violet on mag pick up. turnd over fine but the car would not fire. Question 1. Do I have to use a high performance coil with the MSD? I put the old one back in and same thing the car would not start. Question 2. Could I have fried the coil with the MSD? Question 3. If a coil says "use with primary resistance wire or external resistor" where are these located and how are they hooked up? I don't think I have this. Thanks JC
white wire hook up should I not use the green and violet magnetic triger hook up and use the white wire hook up instead? If I do that is the old modulator used too? thanks again
ok so i'm guessing you are using the ford distributer right?this is how mine is hooked up.small black=negitive coil, orange=positive coil, small red=conected to the redwire on the old coil harness,large red= positive battery,large black=negitive battery,green=green on the distributer,purple=purple on the distributer. this is how mine is hooked up and it works great as far as the stock coil goes.....i'm not sure cause i'm running the blaster 2 coil. but i have been running the stock distributer and it works great.
The purple wire and the green wire go to the pickup in the distributor. MSD makes an adapater harness to adapt the duraspark plug on the dizzy to the MSD plug on the 6 series box. Sounds like you've got everything hooked up correctly. If your car was originally equipped with a duraspark ignition, you most likely already have a resistance wire. I dont think the orange wire goes to the coil, but the bracket mav is under a cover right now, and I cant check for ya. If I remember right, there is a white wire to the +coil and a black wire the the -coil, tach hooks up to the MSD box on the side. You shouldnt need a resistor at the coil as the MSD supplies 480 volts to it. Just connect the dizzy to the MSD box, power the box, and it should work fine. Good luck!
I'm running a 78 distributor duraspark. the harness comming from the distributor has orange purple and black. Thanks for the information.
my car is a 73 that used to have a 250 in it now I have an 89 302 in it. I added the duraspark myself.
you only use the white wire if you DO NOT use the mag pickup wires(green& purple) i am actually gatting all of this out of the paper work that came with my MSD (instructions)
You can either run the stock module with the MSD as a backup, or run the MSD as standalone. Check this out: http://home.cfl.rr.com/mustangsix/Engine/duraspark.htm
I still need help I hooked the duraspark back up but have no spark at the coil. I must have done something. My car is 10 miles away and I just spent 2hrs of messing around and it still has no spark. new coil...still no spark. all wires and conections seem good now real resistance in any of the wires. I just don't know. Any trick tests that I don't know of would be a help. Thanks
Make sure you insulated the connectors in the distributer (msd connectors they give you are bare metal connectors so they can short out on each other) , if you had to change anything in the distributer... I put one on a chevy (i know i just said a bad word leave me alone!) And it wouldnt turn over and I couldnt figure it out and then BAM I went " I wonder if its those 2 connecters in the distributer laying on each other shorting out...." I put black electrical tape on em and ta-da it fired right up. Hope this helps!
There aren't a whole lot of things that can go out to cause no spark. The first would be to make sure that you have your MSD hooked up correctly. Personally, i would dump the duraspark and just run the MSD, especially if you're stuck on the side of the road and just want to get home. Some of the other guys have been giving you advice on which wire to where...make sure you have the white off to the side and taped, if it is touching anything then your car will NOT start! The next thing would be the coil...you said you put a new coil on, so that is not the problem.... The next thing to check would be the pick-up coil, inside the distributor. Honestly, i have never seen one go bad on a ford, but it is possible i'm sure. Depending what year of distributor you're using, there is most likely a stator inside your distributor (eight-sided star type thingie), which passes by the pickup coil. There should not be a very large gap between the two. The last thing would be the wire between the coil and the distributor. Although, you'd probably just end up with a weak spark if it was anything but completely severed. Oh, also i would check the wire that runs from your MSD box to your ignition switch. Yeah! I bet that's what the problem is....make sure it's got a good connection. Anyways, good luck!
Hey thanks alot. It was a poor conection on the black wire to the dis.... aground wire I think. I also apreciate the advice that I should run the MSD as stand alone. That was my next question. On Saturday I drove to work where I decided to hook up the MSD as a stand alone but it didn't work and now the msd is sitting right here on the floor. I was getting ready to wire it in with the duraspark untill now. Thanks Ya'll
