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after the msd box is hooked up and all. do i have to worry about the gapping on the points and the condition of the points still? it should matter if they are opening up still doesnt it?

alright...the nightmare continues. i had bought an msd 6a box and hooked it up as directed in the manual. the only problem i am having is that my ignition switch had went bad a few years ago so what i have done is run a push button start on it so i just turn the key on and push the button. well i hooked up the msd box and now i dont have any spark. i hooked the red wire (the one to the ignition wire) to the ignition wire and i have nothing. i then spliced the red wire to both the push button and the ignition wire and i still have nothing. it turns over but does not even try to fire. any thoughts?

If you connect it to the push button then you should only have power to it while the button is pushed. Right or wrong, That's my thought on that anyway. To get a spark you should just be able to connect it straight for a few minutes...as if you were going HOTWIRE it.

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In life there is the "Way things should be" and then "There's the way they are".

2005 Silverado 3/4T Crew Cab
1981 Luv 2WD
1979 Luv 4x4 Currently going through Open Heart and Cosmetic surgery
1995 Roughneck JetBoat
1981 Luv parts trk

The heavy Red wire need to be hooked up to the Positive side of the battery. The heavy Black wire needs to be hook up to Negative side of the battery. Now you have Red, White, Orange and Black to hook up. Red needs to be hooked up to your on/off switch and check it with a test light to make sure you have power going to this Red wire. White goes to distributor, which had a black wire connected to it, disconnect that black wire that goes to the points and connect the white wire, nothing else gets connected there but the White wire and the points condenser. Disconnect the ballast resister side wire that ends up at the positive side of the coil and connect the Orange wire to the positive side of the coil, nothing else. The negitve side of the coil is where the black wire from the distributor was hooked up too, now disconnect it and connect the Black wire, nothing else should be hooked up to it. The MSD Black wire should the only wire hooked up to the negitive side of the coil and the MSD Orange wire should be the only wire on the positive side of the coil. Hope this helps.

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so does the white wire get connected directly to the distributor where the black wire was or do i splice the two together?

ok so i hooked up everything how it was supposed to go except the red wire. i have tried every combination possible with the red wire and finally found one that works. i have hooked it to a black and blue wire which was supposibly the fuel pump?? as the manual says but i unhooked the blue and black from the coil and the fuel pump still comes on so thats not it. anyways whereever that wire is from is where i hooked up the red one from the msd to. that is the only combo that actually gets it to start up. i now have a black and yellow wire which is supposed to be the ignition wire just floating there hooked to nothing and it is still running so i dont know where it goes or what it goes to. the second part. i finally got it to start up but it would not idle unless i advanced the timing way out there. it was right at 6 degrees before i put the msd on. just to get it to idle, i had to advance the timing half way down the front of the harmonic balancer pulley. where is the timing supposed to be with the msd box on?

I would connect directly for one reason, if their is a short in your OG wire it will ground out the MSD, by using just the MSD white wire then you avoid that headache and you only have one wire to the dist to worry about.

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Timing does not change with the MSD. I sounds as if the dist or your timing chain has a problem. Make sure your firing on #1 cylinder and #1 post on the dist.

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With timing that far off there is something still misswired I believe. I'll take a crack at it: from the MSD box--heavy red to battery +, heavy black to battery - or ground (same thing). Small red wire goes to the black/yellow wire now disconnected from the coil resistor. Small white wire connects to the black/red wire now disconnected from the coil -terminal but still feeds the distributor. Small orange wire connects to the coil + terminal. Small black wire connects to the coil - terminal.
No other small wires on the coil.
The black/blue wire on the coil is no longer needed (ignition resistor bypass).
The points are still used and will need to be adjusted properly but they should last nearly forever as thay are just used for timing.
See if any of this helps you.

Timing is based off the dist. the MSD enhance the timing but there are no timing controls on this unit unless added on to it. Having the timing jump around would be more than likely something to do with dist timing being off. Set you motor to TDC and take your cap off, it should be pointing to either #4 or #1. Now disconnect the power to the MSD and disconnect the white wire. Now connect a test light to the pos on the bat and the dist were the white wire was hooked up. Bump the motor. The test light should go on and off everytime it passes #1. Bump it till it lights up and stop and look to see where about the timing mark you are at. It should be close to 6 degrees BTDC. If not your firing on the wrong cylinder or your 180 off or your timing is set in the wrong location on the mark. Reset you dist to get it to correspond with the timing mark. If your timing is moving around when it's running, check it with the vacuum adv disconnected to see if it makes a difference. Your mech adv or your vacuum adv could be sticking. Sometimes the timing light acts up with a MSD, but that's rare unless it's like a 40 plus year old timing light.

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ok so i set the motor to tdc and and took the cap off. the rotor was pointing to the #1 on the cap if thats what you meant. i put a test light on the pos of the battery and then onto the distributor where i took the white wire off of and i also unhooked the msd. the light would light up twice as i cranked the engine around. it would light up just before tdc and somewhere around the bottom of the harmonic balancer. i hooked the red wire up to the black and yellow this time and it did start up so i think i might as well leave it hooked up to that instead of the black and blue wire since everyone says hook it to the black and yellow. when the engine was sputtering as it idled i tried to check the timing and it was still down on the harmonic balancer well past the timing marks. i really dont know what to do or what adjustments to make since it wont idle around 6 degrees. im sure it has something to do with the distributor. how would i know that it is 180 degrees out or how would it get 180 degrees out? another thing is i pulled out the spark plugs and with each plug, half of the plug on the resistor or whatever its called where it burns is half white and half burnt. i asked a reliable source at the local autoparts store and he said that it is from detonation. so that means that i am having detonation in all 4 cylinders then which i am positive is because of the timing. any and all help please!!!

These are Jeep photos, but it gives you the same idea.







Here is a guy having problems getting his Corvette started.

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When you got the MSD box did you upgrade the plug wires as well? I went with a universal set of MSD super conductors. Paind in the as to cut and hook up but well worth it. I couldnt get my stock plugs to work for crap with teh MSD box but after new plugs it kicked up... Not the solution fixer all the way I know but eliminates another trouble shoot....

it has new plug wire on it but i still do not understand it being that far out of time

Will be doing this up grade to my truck soon. I read were plug wires need to be replaced. Does the plug gap stay at 30 or do they need to be re-gapped to 40??

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1990 Chevy Suburban

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i dont remember what i gapped my plugs at but the plug wires i have on it now are almost brand new

Just check them anyway, it only takes a few min and just cost your time. My wires looked new and in good shape, when my friend insisted on checking them, I had a lot of resistance on the coil wire and one wire was completely dead.

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but nothing explains why my truck is 20 some degrees out of time just to keep it running. set at the factory 6 degrees it will not start, idle or run. being atleast 20 or some degrees advanced i can start it and keep giving it gas but it will not idle

I have run across this in a SBC, the balancer shifted and it moved the timing mark. I don't know enough about LUV motors to know if it happens also on the LUV balancers. The only way I know to fix it is to replace the balancer, cause once it shifts, it's on it's way to failure.

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