MSD Mag Troubles

hi will, i don't know about throwing parts at it but there is an answer to all problems and when you go to have it tested and they tell you its good and you put it back on and it runs the same then whats the sense of having it tested than they tell you that your wires are bad and then you test them to find they are good so you tell them you tested them and ome out fine and they say they still can be bad whats the sense of even testing them we was at etown with a friend with a TAD we put a NEW box and coil on friday morning and the car would start and run for about 60 sec and die we put the old box and coil back on and it ran fine. i have run MSD as long as i been racing its a great product but they cant test them like they are in the real world we took the new box and coil back to the msd trailer to get it tested only to find its good go figure. a carbon wire cant test good and be bad it burns the carbon strands off when you test the wires you should shake them i have been the guinea pig for the new wires i have ten new sets.they didn't make any change in how the motor runs. ps you guys looked good in etown nice runs good luck the rest of the year don johnson

 

Well everybody.... we got the mag back from Lahey. He didnt find anything wrong..all tested good. The car was still in the trailer from just as it was when we had the trouble. Mag, coil and box still in the package from Lahey. We towed to the track, installed mag and stuff, fired her up, set our timing and headed for the staging lanes. Don was confident she would pop and fart and we would be chasing something else. Well guess what????? She's fixed !!! Right up on the tires never skipped a beat.
Now.... nothing else on the car is different, true we "disturbed" the wiring removing / reinstalling the ignition but we gotta believe Lahey fixed something. NOTHING ELSE CHANGED, not even the oil !!!

 

::here is my thoughts on the wires::
i have made our own MSD super conductor wires
i do not believe as everyone else that these are carbon wires, i know they are not
there is a center cord that is wrapped by very fine wire, wrapped around this center cord many , many feet of fine wire per foot of spark plug wire, almost as fine as hair.
that is why the ohms check and i can not remeber of the top of my head what it is per foot
but the wire is so fine is burns between wraps and becomes an open or breaks from pulling off and on the plugs
::check the wires often, i learned the hard way::

 

allsi know is when i hit the gas it took off and did not pop so off we go dont care what it was its fixed.all of your suggestions was appreciated and checked so thanks to everyone one thanks

 

thanks for the input guys.
looks like one of my guys left an earth lead off.
was arc welding down no 7 inlet pushrod.
good luck too all.
cliff

[ July 04, 2004, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: cliff ]

 

There is not a real good way to test plug wires as they can read good with an ohm meter, but be faulty. A ohm meter reads resistance, it can not read if there is the capability to handle the load presented. a single strand of wire will read that there is continuity, but a single strand of wire will not be capable of carrying the load to the plug. I completely agree with changing yhe coil wire every couple of races.

 

So, despite this, are the MSD wires still considered the best?

 

I am an electrical contractor and the manf. of test insterments make a tester called a megger.
It will send high voltage through wires to test the insulation of wires for leakage and also ohms. This is much better than just checking for ohms in a plug wire. The only draw back is the meggers can cost between 200.00 to 2,000.00 or more.
I agree with the other posts replace the coil wire every couple of races and the plug wires at least twice a year. This would probably elemitate
a lot of problems.

Bob Kraemer

PS: Always check the ground wires. A bad connection here will cause all kind of problems.

 

does any one have an address and phone # for Lahey? thanks

 

Dave Leahy
Electrimotion
1484 Dale Ford Rd.
Delaware, OH 43015
740.362.0251-phone
740.972.9074-cell
740.362.0926-fax

 

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