Tim Kay
Lifetime Supporter
In my Tornado with only about a two mile warning the motor started missing at the plugs progressively worse but giving me enough time to find a parking lot, at which point I could only get short burst of ignition when trying to fire the motor. First thing I checked was fuel & fuel pressure, both were fine so I towed her home.
Back at the shop I set out to diagnose an ignition problem:
(1) MSD 6AL tested fine (white wire to ground and coil wire throws an arc every time).
(2) Installed a new MSD Blaster Coil (and woo baby, it got me good on one of the MSD 6AL ground test!!)
(3) Grounded a spare plug to any given plug wire and spark is intermittent (while trying to start the motor) if at all. Spark is never consistent (ergo short burst of ignition).
(4) Tried a different test at the coil wire, this time stuck a used spark plug in the coil wire to ground and it sparks intermittent if at all (similar as the plug wire test except when it sparks it's rapid)
(5) Dual Sync Pro Billet Dizzy seems to be ok, circuit board lights are operating correctly.
(6) I've repeated all the test three times, in different sequence, same results.
Is it likely I have some kind of ground issue with the results of the above mentioned test? I'm kinda focused on why the coil wire is not a consistent rapid spark. I wonder if that's even a valid test (#4 above) since the MSD Troubleshoot instructions don't suggest that procedure. Am I damaging something by doing that?
Or do I need to look at the dizzy as the culprit here? I'm not sure if I can isolate the MSD & coil from the dizzy like I am trying to do.
Back at the shop I set out to diagnose an ignition problem:
(1) MSD 6AL tested fine (white wire to ground and coil wire throws an arc every time).
(2) Installed a new MSD Blaster Coil (and woo baby, it got me good on one of the MSD 6AL ground test!!)
(3) Grounded a spare plug to any given plug wire and spark is intermittent (while trying to start the motor) if at all. Spark is never consistent (ergo short burst of ignition).
(4) Tried a different test at the coil wire, this time stuck a used spark plug in the coil wire to ground and it sparks intermittent if at all (similar as the plug wire test except when it sparks it's rapid)
(5) Dual Sync Pro Billet Dizzy seems to be ok, circuit board lights are operating correctly.
(6) I've repeated all the test three times, in different sequence, same results.
Is it likely I have some kind of ground issue with the results of the above mentioned test? I'm kinda focused on why the coil wire is not a consistent rapid spark. I wonder if that's even a valid test (#4 above) since the MSD Troubleshoot instructions don't suggest that procedure. Am I damaging something by doing that?
Or do I need to look at the dizzy as the culprit here? I'm not sure if I can isolate the MSD & coil from the dizzy like I am trying to do.