Hello everybody,

I have a very nooby question about an ignition issue. My car (71 cutlass, 350) has an MSD ready to run distributor and a stock ignition coil mounted and runs/starts great. In my garage, i have a brand new MSD blaster 2 coil laying around, so i mounted it. Everything was connected like it should be (double checked it with wiring diagram), but with this coil, the engine wont even start, its only bogging and backfiring like only 2 cylinders get a spark. No Problems with the original coil.

how can this be? I read that the positive ignition wire is a resistor wire, so i didn't use an extra resistor.

Any thoughts about this issue?

greetings from Austria

 

So the engine ran fine with the original coil but did not run with the MSD coil.

Did you reinstall the original coil and verify the engine still runs OK?

If so, then I would suspect the "new" coil is not good.

If this is the case, keep the old coil and be happy.

 

i had same problem with msd blaster coil right out of the package,maybe they suck

 

No where in the instructions do I see to use the stock resistance wire. Run a new 14/12ga wire from the IGN terminal in the fuse block to the coil + terminal. Make sure the red wire from distributor is going to the coil+ and the orange wire is going to coil-. Make sure the black wire is going to ground and if your using a tach it gets connected to the gray wire.

Link to instructions
http://documents.msdperformance.com/8529.pdf

 

Thanks for your answers!

Yes, i have the old coil back in the car and its running fine..
youre right with just keeping it..
It was also one of my thoughts that these MSD coils simply suck, but i think the problem is that resistor wire, maybe i'll try this the next days

greetings

 

the resistor wire only supplies a little over 6 volts,the instructions do show 12 volts to + on coil.maybe that coil has to have 12v.maybe my problem was i was still using points and had to resist the voltage.jc

 

Yeah, the wiring diagram says that there should be 12V + to the coil.. i also think that thats the problem.

the reason why theres a resistor wire is to protect the original points from burning too fast?

so if you run a points distributor, i think it would work with a full 12V coil too, but the wear of the points will be higher? Just thinking

greets

 

i believe running 12 v to coil with points will burn them out quickly.i never bothered to figure out why that coil didn't work with my points distributor because after putting 4.33 gears in my car the points distributor couldn't perform at the higher rpm and i put an msd distributor in.i just thought it was defective,now i'm thinking it wasn't compatible with points.

 

Bringing back an old topic...
My 71 455 Vista Cruiser had had all of the ignition replaced, and I figured out the stock coil had a worn out contact for the ignition wire. It would not click into place.
So went to parts store, and they wouldv'e had to order a stock replacement coil.
They had a Blaster coil sitting right there on the shelf, so I bought it.
Then, reading the instructions, it says to use an 8ohm ballast resistor if using with stock points.
My resistor wire has crumbling insulation, and actually shorted out previously, so I'm replacing it anyway.
My question, is do I use standard wire, with the MSD resistor?
My car has a black wire going to the distributor, but not sure it's the original wire. There was no wire going to ground, and the burnt resistor wire going to the firewall junction.

 

Assuming your still running points, then yes plain stranded wire with the 8 ohm resistor.