msd trouble shoot

[713404spd]

well i bought a 6al at the nats and sunday night I installed it on my car and it turned over the first time i tried to start it it turned over but the second time it wouldnt even turn over (which I assume is a fuse). the car had electronic ignition on it before and I unhooked my orange box, distributor and my coil from the factory system but as soon as i turn my key forward my ballast resistor gets hot. does anyone know why this would be? i know I hooked the msd box up right and its grounded good and I have a msd distributor and coil on also. Any held would be greatly appreciated..... Thank you
seth

 

[eric202006]

well i bought a 6al at the nats and sunday night I installed it on my car and it turned over the first time i tried to start it it turned over but the second time it wouldnt even turn over (which I assume is a fuse). the car had electronic ignition on it before and I unhooked my orange box, distributor and my coil from the factory system but as soon as i turn my key forward my ballast resistor gets hot. does anyone know why this would be? i know I hooked the msd box up right and its grounded good and I have a msd distributor and coil on also. Any held would be greatly appreciated..... Thank you
seth

msd doesnt used the ballast resistor in its install. its bypassed. i heard the msd 6al works best when grounded directly to the battery. and as far as not turning over, check the main power (fusable link) that goes into the car.

 

[70aarcuda]

your mopar electronic ignition uses a run and start voltages....if you have the msd hooked up to either one of these it is not going to work...

you need to combine the two wires from the ballast resistor and hook it up to the msd wire...that way the msd will see both start and run voltages..

 

[713404spd]

your mopar electronic ignition uses a run and start voltages....if you have the msd hooked up to either one of these it is not going to work...

you need to combine the two wires from the ballast resistor and hook it up to the msd wire...that way the msd will see both start and run voltages..

so splice the wires that are on the ballast resistor to my switched hot wire?

 

[70aarcuda]

yes to the switched wire for the msd...i think it is the orange wire...

 

[MadScientistMat]

The light red wire is not supposed to draw very much current. Where exactly did you connect the heavy red wire? It almost sounds like it's being powered through the ballast resistor.

 

[Blownfish]

Don't cut the ballast resistor wires, just make a jumper to bypass it.

The larger power wire for the MSD box is suppose to go to a 12 volt power source not a switched circuit, and it needs to be a heavy gauge wire not a small gauged wire from inside the car, the battery terminal on your starter relay or starter or just run the wire directly to the battery. It needs a full 12 volts with no drop in voltage and it won't run if the battery is low either.

 

[713404spd]

I had my heavy red and heavy black going straight to the battery. My swiched wire was connected by my ballast resistor. No matter what I did my ballast resistor was getting hot so i did what eric and 70aar told me and I just took out the resistor and spliced them together with my swiched msd wire and it works great now. Thank yall for the help!!