Installing an MSD ignition
 

I have just recently purchased the MSD 6A ignition system and have a couple of questions.

Which wire do you suggest I put the red switched wire on?(The thin red wire)

Where does the white wire connect to?(The one that says to be connected to the points, electronic ignition amplifier output or another msd thing)

Also, where is the best place to mount this?

I was thinking about mounting it against the firewall. I have the silver heat/sound insulation stuff on it, so if I got it on, it would be somewhat shock absorbant.

Thanks,
Paul

[This message has been edited by paulhagedorn (edited 01-19-2000).]

I connected my red heavy wire to the starter solenoid wire (not the battery lead). Can't say w/ regard to the white wire as my car is DME. Don't worry about shock when mounting, the thing is bulletproof. just don't mount it where it would get direct road spray

I hooked the large wires directly to the batt terminals since this is what the tech at MSD told me to do. There is some confusion about the small red and white wires and if you want to give me a call tonite about 9:00 pacific time I will go out and look at the race car to see for you I teach a class tonite so won't be home earlier. My number is 619-691-8640. Also make sure you do not bundle the wires together so they are real neat looking, the MSD tech person said my missfire and tach jumping were due to emf across the wires so I separated them and it went away!!!

I mounted mine in the rear truck on the firewall.

Mine is mounted on the firewall, under the rear window. This is nice and close to the battery and the coil, so all wires are about as short as they can be, which is always a good thing. The tach adapter is mounted under the unit. This is high enough on the firewall that it does not disturb the cooling air flow to the fan.

You can see a photo of this via my web pages http://get.to/dubler (then select the car...) (The Sears box mounted next to the MSD is a battery charger/maintainer which keeps the battery ready through the snowy days here in Colorado).

This mounting is cool because everytime you pop the engine lid, someone says, "Wow, you even have an MSD system on this car!"

(gonna replace those cheap 7mm silicone wires with MSD or Accel wires any day now).

Heavy red (Battery lead) is attached directly to the + battery terminal clamp. The black wire goes to the stud which attaches the battery ground strap to the body which is behind the battery on the outside wall of the engine compartment.

There are complete manuals available for download at the MSDigintion web pages. Mine was installed in '91 and back then they provided these plastic stand-offs which attached to each terminal of the coil thus giving you four connection points for the four small wires from the 6A. What is neat about this, is that in the event of a failure, all you have to do is pull the four MSD wires off and replace each pair with a pair of short jumpers and drive off under normal coil power...

Thanks very much to John Rogers for going to his car and telling me exactly what to plug in where. It really saved me a lot of time. Now, I do have one problem.

At certain rpm, I hear a clicking and a feeling like a lack of power. Not sure exactly what it is.
One thing that I am probably in need of is a new coil. I have brand new plug wires. I think they are 7.5 mm silicone wires. Not sure, though.

One thing is for certain though...the car does run a lot smoother than it did.

Paul

You're welcome, no problem at all. I would look at the distributor cap to make sure there is no arcing, make SURE the wires are NOT solid core, make sure the four small wires for the MSD unit are NOT bundled tightly together as at higher RPMs you can get interference and on my car the tach would dance around a bunch! Scared the hell out of me the first time it happened on the autocross course! I'd recommend a MSD coil too as the stock one can easily get saturated from the MSD unit. Good luck.