Seems there are many permutations of Permatune.

Black box made in NY.
Silver box made in TX.
Blue box(non-potted) in ??
Blue box(potted) in ??

Good luck, sent you an email.

Question- How does everyone route the red cable to the starter under the car? I pushed it through the engine tin rubber gasket on the driver's side where the MSD is going to mount already, but I'm not sure how to run it over the transmission and back down to the starter.

Update- got the red cable routed over the transmission and straight to (what I believe is) the starter. Small cylinder tucked up under the passenger's A-arm next to a much bigger cylinder. I bolted the connection directly on top of some other wires already connected to this part.

Go to start the car, and no juice. Nothing, same as what I had the other day with the PermaTune. I check the spark with a cheap plug I bought for testing and there's still zero spark. I pulled the cap from the distributor and made sure the rotor bug was spinning, which it was. What this tells me is that there's no signal going from the rotor to the cap and therefor to the wires and plugs.

I'm stumped. Not to mentioned aggravated.

This is what I ended up with for my MSD wiring. I used the PermaTune side connector and just reused/soldered the spade connectors instead of plugging directly in. I thought this would make for a cleaner look.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...623_141620.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...623_141627.jpg

Followed every diagram and matched everything up perfectly. I noticed that with power on at the key, the LED on the MSD unit did not come on. Should this be on with power at the key?

got power at the red wire?? on your meter??? when turning on the key, do you have power at the ignition wire??? Got to have a meter to check these power sources out. real hard to see voltage flow with your eyes

That would make sense to check, wouldn't it? Since it's currently pouring out and the car is at the bottom of the driveway, I'll have to wait to check. Would it make sense to make sure there's power at the starter end of the wire first?

well yes does it crank over? that big red wire needs 12V all the time

James-

Just checked for power at the starter and got 12.65 volts. Checked the red wire on the MSD and have the same. Where I'm not showing any power is at the 12V switched (small red wire) on the MSD, meaning no power to the coil. I think it may be safe to assume this is the same problem I had when the car wouldn't start last weekend.

Where does the 12V switched wire head to in front of the engine bay?***

***Normally! We're finding out that one of the POs did a hack job on the wiring and I cannot confirm that the original 12V switched wire is in tact.

We did check each fuse in the block in the trunk and they all showed good at 0 resistance.

Aaaaaand now my starter is dead. Was turning over just fine and now she clicks when you turn the key.

Probably the battery is run down for your starter troubles.

For switched power:
Run a #14 red wire from the bottom fuse of the small 3 fuse panel to the red terminal in the middle of the female 6 pin connector on the engine harness.
Replace the existing red wire that is there. That is where the switched power should go. (Test that you get switched power on the fuse before running the wire)

Normally switched power is supplied to the CDI by a white 2 wire "T" shaped connector that exits the Engine harness near the 6 pin connector. (Should have a brown/red stripe and a red wire to it) and connects to a 2 wire "T" connector that hides out under the fuse panel by the CDI location.
In the pictures you sent someone seems to have replaced the correct wire connectors and spliced and diced...

Look for the brown/red stripe wire from the engine harness that should be in the "T" connector, it is the wire that grounds your safety switch on the back of your CIS to enable the fuel pump to run!

Where does this yellow circled connector go to the left? Does it enter the main engine harness?
Looks like the one I'm referring to.
If it goes into the main harness, the red should go to the red in the 6 pin connector. If it does, you should have switched power to it.
(Unless there has been a real hack job performed)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372030561.jpg

Dennis,

The battery was good. Brand new, putting out 12.6V. The starter just needed a little TLC from a hammer. I guess that's going soon now though.

You must have been sending me diagnostic brain waves about the 12V switch. We ended up doing exactly what you suggested by tying into one of the live connections on the top of those three fuses in the engine bay. We went a step further and hooked up a dead-man switch to hide in the cabin as an anti-theft device.

So, by the time I left we had a working 12V switch tied into the MSD, power from the starter, and still no spark. The coil is brand new, the wires, to the best of my knowledge, are all in the right locations, and the MSD unit's LED flashed a few times when the key was turned. I did not remember to put my test plug in to the magnacor coil wire to test for spark/power there.

I did drop by the neighborhood air-cooled VW nut to ask him if he knew anyone. They gave me the number to a wiring guru that's a member of their club. I will likely try him if I can't diagnose the problem this week.

I will check those mystery connections the next time I'm at the car. I'm sorry for cutting our call short, when it started pouring rain I was running around like a mad man trying to put all the tools back inside and cover up the electrical components in the engine bay.

Update: Not much to update. A mechanic neighbor of my parents' stopped by today and noticed a break in the green insulation on the infamous "green wire"running from my distributor. He mentioned something about the magnetic pick up being faulty and recommended that I look into it, so I shall spend my night looking up stories of the 'green wire'. He also suggested replacing the green wire with two individual ones. I'll have to do some more research before I can find the logic in his thought.

For what it's worth, he's a commercial diesel mechanic and has never actually been right about anything he's suggested in any of my vehicular quandaries.

the green wire is just a shielded wire, one wire goes to the MSD as the trigger the other wire is a ground or you can splice that wire for the time being just to check out the system, the mag pickup rarely go out, show a picture of the broken green wire

Update:

I have the "smartest, wonderfullets, bestest dad in the whole wide world".

Guess whose words these were?

We revisited the broken green wire connected to the bottom of the distributor. We cut it at the break, removed some of the sheathing, split the two and reconnected them as two wires.

Car started right up.


DOH!

OK....now borrow a set up gauges and check fuel pressures and get thee to a sniffer to set up the mixture.

Hey Joe Bob,

I'm missing something, what do you mean by this? As of last night the car was running perfectly. The only thing I have to complain about it a small but noticeable amount of what I presume to be oil smoke coming out of the exhaust.

That, and somehow I am getting exhaust gasses being routed into the cabin, I think. The car has a heater backdate using the parts available through Pelican and matching black aluminum hoses/clamps.


Today I went back to my parents' house to do the final mounting of the MSD unit, heat shrink and seal the new green wire(s) connection(s), and tuck some of the additional wiring that has been flopping around between the ignition mounting bracket and the engine . I pulled the 12V switch (that we installed a while back as a temporary power source to the MSD) and I guess we still need the jump. The MSD unit receives no power without the switch.

Tomorrow I'm going back again to do a permanent install of the power switch to some place inconspicuous in the cabin.

Before pulling the switch however, the car was running like a champ. I put a little bit of Sta-bil in the tank last night as it's been sitting for months, then today added about 3 gallons of 110 octane fuel. There was a small misfire in the low RMP range under a load initially, but smoothed out very well after a few minutes. I was pretty happy overall that I got to drive her after 6 months.

Dennis,

Thank you again so much for offering your help with this mess. To answer your earlier questions about the connectors in the yellow circle, they go to a cylindrical relay that I believe powers the rear window wiper.

If stock, the 3.0 runs on middish fuel and is all about proper fuel pressure. Proper air fuel mixture is essential. A little rich is OK, a little lean, not so.

Running high octane is a waste of money.

The Bentley manual is a good thing. I keep it next to my Bible.....I seem to use the Bentley more.....:rolleyes:

I'm updating this thread instead of making a new one.


Long story short- The car has been running like a dream lately. As of yesterday morning she started a little slowly, due to the outside temp being 7 degrees.

I ended up stalling the car at an intersection on my way to work and now she won't start. Nothing in the engine bay has been touched since I added a quart of oil two weeks ago. I pulled a spark plug wire and put in my tester spark plug. Grounded it next to the intake plenum and got no spark.

My MSD will flash 5 times when I turn the key on and then the light goes off.

I'm sort of out of ideas. Originally I thought maybe the weather had something to do with it- injectors freezing or something. Apparently it's not the issue. I pulled the car in the garage last night after having it towed home. Tried cranking it tonight and got complaints from the GF that she smelled fuel upstairs.

Thoughts? I'm dedicating this weekend to going through my ignition wiring to double check everything.