351w Not starting.... help!

[John Montgomery]

Hi Guys... I need your help.

I have a Unique FIA with a 351w that will not start. The ignition is MSD 6al and MSD coil.

The engine turns over fine, but does not fire. After looking through some of the posts here on CC, it was suggested that the ignition switch may be bad. I replaced that and it started right up. I thought it was fixed.

Then last night I tried starting it again and it would not fire. It finally did start after about 5 or 6 attempts. When it did start, it ran fine. I turned it off after letting it idle for a few minutes and tried restarting it. Again... would not start. I tried about 10 more times with no luck.

So... this leads me to believe I have an electrical issue since it has started a couple of times and ran fine. I checked and I am getting fuel to the carb.Not sure if the MSD 6AL or the MSD coil is bad. Or, if I have a wiring issue to those components.

Thanks for all your help

John

[Rick Parker]

Follow these troubleshooting tips. Often the problem item is the coil pickup in the distributor, assuming all the wiring connections ar solid.

MSD Ignition

[John Montgomery]

Rick... thanks for your help. I went to the MSD site and followed their instructions on testing the ignition. I am getting spark. I'll check the distributor next.

According to the MSD website, the magnetic pickup should measure between 500-700 ohms. Mine measures in the 300 k-ohms range. Looks like I'll be ordering that part next.

[PANAVIA]

The mag pickups can corrode and just fail with spotty performance.

or you could have vibrated something loose in the coil ( Inside )

or - you could have a loose wire to the mag pickup ( green / purple )

[vector1]

ignition switch

[John Montgomery]

Panavia.... the green/purple wires seem to be ok. I hope the pickup is what's bad. If not, I'll look at coil next.


Vector1.... first thing I changed. Started first time using new ignition switch, but would start again until after 5-6 attempts.

I ordered a new magnetic pickup from Summit. Hopefully, will be fixed this week. This is perfect driving weather here in Florida and I want to enjoy every moment of it!

John

[vector1]

if it fired right up after the ignition switch exchange, i would probably try to bypass the hot wire and wire the msd direct and see if that made any difference.

[John Montgomery]

Update.........


The trouble was the magnetic pickup. Thanks for everyone's help!

John

[sllib]

I hope you bought a spare...