6A ignition got wet, car won't start

S-Car-Go · May 22, 2009

I washed my car today and some how managed to get water into a Mallory HyFire 6A with the hood closed. Now the car won't start

So I opened the unit and blew it out with compressed air. A little water did come out. It still won't start. Is this thing cooked or do you think it may start after sitting a while? Anyone have experience with this?

BarnStang · May 22, 2009

Probably toast. Had the same thing happen to an MSD 6A box. Just rinsing off with the hose. Went to start and it smoked. So, yea, probably fried it. Is it a Mallory or an MSD?

Rusty67 · May 23, 2009

Sounds like it is toasted to me. It may work if it dries out completely, the problem is that it may not be reliable even if it does start to work again. I would get yourself another unit. How did the water get in there ? Maybe you can prevent this from happening again ?

2+2GT · May 23, 2009

One of the reasons I like stock ignition, or Pertronix I. You can spray water ON the engine and it won't stall unless you deliberately target the distributor cap. Even then, if you pop it off and dry the inside, it'll start right up.

This is Mickey Thompsons 64 Thunderbolt. The missing headlights were factory-converted to ram air intakes.

The Thunderbolt was a lightweight version of the Fairlane, built for racing, and equipped with a 427 dual-quad engine. Thompson's personal car was specially assembled with Chrysler Hemi heads adapted to the Ford 427 engine, which is why it had rather odd-looking radiator pipes. This is the ignition system, which was adequate to make the car a drag-racing legend:

S-Car-Go · May 23, 2009

It's a Mallory.

2+2, I hear what you are saying. A duraspark unit would not have fried because I washed my car. I never even opened the hood! Water just dripped in at the perfect angle. Yes, I have turn signals in my hood (68 option), but this isn't even safe to drive in the rain.

I guess if I have to get a new one, it will be the marine unit. I still like the CD over inductive ignitions.

zookeeper · May 23, 2009

Everyone's got their own preference, but I agree with 2+2, a stock style ignition has always worked for me on the street. I buddy of mine has a CD ignition on his '67 and it fails often enough to make me steer clear of them . Sometimes it goes for a couple years with no problems, then "boom" it just fails to run one random day. Heck, my wife's Corvette still has points and it's more reliable than that.

mrmustangman357 · May 23, 2009

i mounted mine inside the car

pyroman · May 24, 2009

mrmustangman357 said:
i mounted mine inside the car

Yup glovebox for me

6A ignition got wet, car won't start

S-Car-Go

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BarnStang

Rusty67

2+2GT

S-Car-Go

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zookeeper

mrmustangman357

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6A ignition got wet, car won't start

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