Troubleshooters and Thinkers . . . Here's a Good One!

damacman

Resident Psycho
So, I'm rollin' down the boulevard in the Olds' in my Avatar two Saturdays ago when all of a sudden the ignition system in it dies. Of course the engine stalls and I have to coast up hill and try to make it over a bridge - no bueno. Luckily, the curb is a nice smooth one from the road to the sidewalk so I'm able to pull off the road and onto the sidewalk and get out of traffic.

Hmmm . . .

With the key OFF, I pull the blown 25A fuse for the box and replace it. BAM! OK - time to call the wife for a tow. So, I go home with my tail between my legs on a tow strap.

Here is my ignition system:

MSD 8366 Small Cap HEI Distributor
MSD 6AL2 Ignition Box
MSD HVC II Coil for 6-Series Ignitions

The car also has EFI and timing is managed by the Holley HP ECU (see diagram).

Who can guess what happened? I know and let me tell you . . . it wasn't the first thing that I thought of!
 

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You have three Might Suddenly Die components in the mix, so that makes narrowing it down more difficult. The Mustang guys call it that, I've honestly never run any of their stuff so no opinion on it.

guessing the pickup in the distributor bit the dust. Either that or the tach or wiring to the tach shorted. Had that happen once, but it was a wire rubbed through which made it a really intermittent but severe misfire.
 
LOL - never heard that before. I've actually had great luck with MSD stuff. Keep in mind that the box actually failed catastrophically. Interestingly enough, I replaced the module in the distributor about a month ago for an unrelated issue.
 
I don't know but you should get the Digital 6, and lock your Distributor down.

Maybe I'll put this out, I'v had the coil contact ball in a MSD cap burn up, this leave you with no spark.
 
I don't know but you should get the Digital 6, and lock your Distributor down.

Maybe I'll put this out, I'v had the coil contact ball in a MSD cap burn up, this leave you with no spark.
Distributor is locked - the 8366 is designed to be used with EFI sir. Timing is done in the map in the ECU.

You’re on the right track!
 
I know:p

:idea:
The tab on top of the rotor fell off loosing contact....
The cap loosened up loosing contact....
The coil boiled.....
Yep - the metal tab on the rotor came off. When that happened, the spark from the coil couldn’t find ground through the correct path and backfed into the box - blowing it up. Look up the specs on the HVC II coil and you’ll understand why . . .
 
Interesting failure mode.

Kinda makes me wonder if that isn't partly why the Ford ignition modules roast sometimes. It seems to happen on cars that are indifferently maintained. Could just be the spark-side stuff gets so crappy that it backfeeds through the module enough to eventually nuke it.
 
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