Msd 6al Box is dead!

Crs

Member

May 7, 2004

182

0

16

San Francisco, CA

Oct 5, 2005

#1

• Oct 5, 2005

• #1

My Msd 6al box on my 68 is dead after only 6000 miles(bought 3 years ago). Should i spend another $230, or should i go with a different set up. I have an Msd Distributor, Msd Blaster Coil, And a 6al box with rev limiter.

 

LMan

Founding Member

Aug 10, 2002

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Mom's basement

Oct 5, 2005

#2

• Oct 5, 2005

• #2

how do you know its dead?

 

S

Sicarius428

Active Member

Jan 6, 2004

2,085

5

49

Oct 5, 2005

#3

• Oct 5, 2005

• #3

Call MSD. I believe they repair the units at cost with a minumum of 15 bucks and a max of 55 bucks(was a couple years ago). I've had nothing but great support from them so do give them a call. It may save you a few bucks.
Kevin

 

jerry S

New Member

Sep 3, 2003

1,365

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52.22N 5.12E

Oct 5, 2005

#4

• Oct 5, 2005

• #4

Sicarius428 said:

Call MSD. I believe they repair the units at cost with a minumum of 15 bucks and a max of 55 bucks(was a couple years ago). I've had nothing but great support from them so do give them a call. It may save you a few bucks.
Kevin

Click to expand...

I second that. My experience as well.

 

302 coupe

Founding Member

Mar 2, 2000

1,952

3

36

Macon, Ga.

Oct 5, 2005

#5

• Oct 5, 2005

• #5

get MSD to fix it, its cheap and easy.

 

M

mustangdave

My rearend needs a stud and two nuts.

Founding Member

Feb 26, 2002

2,976

1

56

North Carolina

Oct 5, 2005

#6

• Oct 5, 2005

• #6

Consider running two boxes so you can switch to the other one when one dies. That way you don't have any downtime.

 

H

harley02

New Member

Aug 29, 2004

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Tarpon Springs, FL

Oct 5, 2005

#7

• Oct 5, 2005

• #7

Im reading way more bad threads than good threads in reference to MSD.

 

Crs

Member

May 7, 2004

182

0

16

San Francisco, CA

Oct 5, 2005

#8

• Oct 5, 2005

• #8

I am not getting any spark to my coil. I'll try to call msd and see if they help me out.

 

SitDown

Founding Member

Mar 3, 2001

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Chicagoland

Oct 5, 2005

#9

• Oct 5, 2005

• #9

id definately 1st look into sending it back to be fixed...as another option ive always liked the mallory hyfire (Dig VI i think) Offers all that the MSD6AL does plus has a few addtl features like built in window switch and multi-step retard, and for the same price as the msd.

 

G

grego37

New Member

May 12, 2004

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Fresno CA

Oct 5, 2005

#10

• Oct 5, 2005

• #10

Check the ground cable from box to chassis.
You also should have a engine to chassis ground strap.

Also its made to work with 12v, anything less and you'll have problems.
check other connections too.

In most cases its not the box.
I went through the same thing, sent it in , it tested out fine.
Turned out to be my ground wasnt good enough.

 

SitDown

Founding Member

Mar 3, 2001

335

0

17

Chicagoland

Oct 5, 2005

#11

• Oct 5, 2005

• #11

harley02 said:

Im reading way more bad threads than good threads in reference to MSD.

Click to expand...

I dont usually start threads to say how well my iginition box worked today, but
Ive had the same 6AL in my car for almost 7 years now...hows that im sure 90% of stangnet uses some MSD product, and ppl typically only post when something breaks.

 

R

Red5oh

Member

Jul 8, 2005

377

0

17

DFW, Texas

Oct 5, 2005

#12

• Oct 5, 2005

• #12

I've had mine fixed twice... first time was when it was fairly new (warranty) and the second after the car was in a bad accident and shorted it out (released all the magic smoke) That time only cost me approx $40 to fix. Worth it in my opinion.

 

1320stang

Founding Member

Nov 13, 1998

4,329

23

89

Edmond, Oklahoma

Oct 5, 2005

#13

• Oct 5, 2005

• #13

Im reading way more bad threads than good threads in reference to MSD.

Click to expand...

I bought a 6al from Summit in '94 and never installed it until I think 2002? After checking the wiring 3 times to make sure it was right, hooked it up and tried to start. Saw the magic smoke coming out. Put back in the old stock box and went racing. Later that year, while at WFC, I saw a guy with MSD at one of the vendors, told him about it and although I didn't expect them to warrenty it since it was so old, he said send it in and they'll look at it. Cost me, I think $8 to send? Oh yeah, and it was over a year after I had spoke to him, so like fall of 2003. They sent it back fixed for free and paid the shipping. I'd use MSD again in a heartbeat. Although I'm positive we installed it correctly (we later installed it back with the wires we had put in as we placed it on the passenger kick panel and it's worked great since) I think a lot of the time it's installer error.

Like Sitdown said, most people bitch when something doesn't work, but everyone expects it to be perfect and never gives kudos when it works right.

Point in case, same car, sent 600 DP carb to Pro Systems to get worked. Got it back and with no other changes, it picked up a full half second out of the box with no changes. Patrick James is a genius.

 

Crs

Member

May 7, 2004

182

0

16

San Francisco, CA

Oct 5, 2005

#14

• Oct 5, 2005

• #14

The other day i tried to start my car. I let it warm up for about 3 minutes.........as soon as i put it in reverse it completely died and then got no spark. That's how i diagnosed that i wasn't getting spark to my coil.

 

latamud

Founding Member

Oct 22, 2002

791

2

19

Tampa, FL

Oct 5, 2005

#15

• Oct 5, 2005

• #15

grego37 said:

Check the ground cable from box to chassis.
You also should have a engine to chassis ground strap.

Also its made to work with 12v, anything less and you'll have problems.
check other connections too.

In most cases its not the box.
I went through the same thing, sent it in , it tested out fine.
Turned out to be my ground wasnt good enough.

Click to expand...

Actually it will run under 12V. I was out of town and the charging wire got disconnected somehow. I noticed the volt gauge was slowly working its way down. So, I figured get as close to home as possible so the tow cost wouldn't be as high. I made it about 50 miles, the tach actually stopped reading before I lost the MSD. I was below 8 volts, thats as low as the gauge goes. I think MSD even advertises that it can keep a car running with something like 3 volts.