MSD Coil Wiring

vette427sbc

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Sep 25, 2008
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Jersey Shore
Finally upgraded from my pre-historic points dizzy and went with a MSD setup.
Ready to run pro billet, 8.5 wires and a Blaster SS coil. The car will barely run with the complete MSD setup. When I change out the coil to my old Accel Super Stock, car runs beautiful. I have 2 hot wires that went to the + side of the coil. Is this how it is supposed to be? It runs fine with this wiring on the Accel coil, but not with the MSD. If I take one of the hot wires off, it doesnt change anything. If I pull the other one off, it starts up nice (runs smooth, starts instantly) and then dies about a second later. I bought 2 (two) Blaster SS coils to make sure one of them wasnt bad. Does anyone else run an MSD coil on their car? how is yours wired?
Im thinking there is a good chance the Made In China stamped on the back has something to do with this... :chinese:
 
I have hear little good, and lots of evil about MSD.....but in fact NO first hand knowledge, except they did manage to smooth out a rich idle I had on a Pontiac about 3 decades? ago....:lol:
 
Your old points set up probably had one wire from the starter and one wire from the ignition switch. The one from the ignition switch goes through a resister or is a resistor wire. The one from the starter is full battery voltage. According to the wiring diagram on the MSD site this set up does not use a ballast resistor. It should have full battery voltage to the coil cranking and running. Bypass the resistor on the ignition switch side and I bet it will be fine.
 
I have no factory wiring in my car but do you have the black MSD wire going to the coil - and the orange to the coil +? the white wire taped up and not used?
 
Your old points set up probably had one wire from the starter and one wire from the ignition switch. The one from the ignition switch goes through a resister or is a resistor wire. The one from the starter is full battery voltage. According to the wiring diagram on the MSD site this set up does not use a ballast resistor. It should have full battery voltage to the coil cranking and running. Bypass the resistor on the ignition switch side and I bet it will be fine.

I didnt realize that the cloth braided wire was a resistor wire. Thats what was causing the problem. The Accel coil ran in my other car with no resistor (12v) and it also ran on the factory setup in my car (resistor). Thats what confused me. I bypassed the resistor wire and it runs great now.

I have no factory wiring in my car but do you have the black MSD wire going to the coil - and the orange to the coil +? the white wire taped up and not used?

My distributor came with an orange, red, and black wire... orange to (-) and red to (+). Black went directly to ground.
 
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