I am encountering a no-start situation with my MSD 6AL. Motor is 363ci with 4x Weber 48IDA. MSD Distributor and Blaster 2 coil.
Car has been running fine and recently wouldn't start. Repeated cranking drove the battery down until it would need to be recharged to try again. Seemingly randomly it would start and once running runs great.
Today was another no-start day and I observed with the key on (but not cranking) the red LED on the MSD box is blinking rapidly and continuously. There is no description of this anywhere that I have come across in MSD troubleshooting guides and when I called them the tech told me the light "is not a diagnostic light". I am showing 14 volts on the battery so doesn't seem to be a result of undervoltage. Could it be a bad coil? What would cause an MSD unit to flash continuously like that with key on but not yet cranking?
I replaced the MSD with a brand new one today and same issue. I do notice that my battery seems to die pretty quickly -- after a minute or two of intermittent start attempts it is below 12 volts and jump starting allows the car to fire right up. Battery is less than year old Optima Red Top (9002-002) rated at 800CCA. Should I replace the battery and coil next? Could the distributor itself be bad? This is all strange because the car has been running perfectly fine from an ignition perspective until this no-start/blinking LED issue began and replacing the MSD didn't change that. Also, since jumpstarting lets it fire up every time, the battery seems suspect but why would the battery show 14 volts and be bad? I am only checking it with a multimeter and don't have a way of doing so under load.
Appreciate any thoughts!!
Car has been running fine and recently wouldn't start. Repeated cranking drove the battery down until it would need to be recharged to try again. Seemingly randomly it would start and once running runs great.
Today was another no-start day and I observed with the key on (but not cranking) the red LED on the MSD box is blinking rapidly and continuously. There is no description of this anywhere that I have come across in MSD troubleshooting guides and when I called them the tech told me the light "is not a diagnostic light". I am showing 14 volts on the battery so doesn't seem to be a result of undervoltage. Could it be a bad coil? What would cause an MSD unit to flash continuously like that with key on but not yet cranking?
I replaced the MSD with a brand new one today and same issue. I do notice that my battery seems to die pretty quickly -- after a minute or two of intermittent start attempts it is below 12 volts and jump starting allows the car to fire right up. Battery is less than year old Optima Red Top (9002-002) rated at 800CCA. Should I replace the battery and coil next? Could the distributor itself be bad? This is all strange because the car has been running perfectly fine from an ignition perspective until this no-start/blinking LED issue began and replacing the MSD didn't change that. Also, since jumpstarting lets it fire up every time, the battery seems suspect but why would the battery show 14 volts and be bad? I am only checking it with a multimeter and don't have a way of doing so under load.
Appreciate any thoughts!!