successfully fried the coil
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
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From: richardson tx
successfully fried the coil
seems i might have fried the msd blaster coil. lots of white smoke and smell came out of it. its a dual connector single coil msd #8226. i had the 6a connected to one terminal per instructions then i had another 12v source and the tach connected to the other nothing going to the msd distributor #8366 as i was just bumping the car over to get tdc on number 1. the dist was out. so unplugged it and proceded to install the dist and plug wires. the way i have it set up is im using the 6a box with it plugged up to the msd #8876 coil harness and coil which i know is right. then i have the other two wire connector from the dist hooked up the the other end of the coil harness. tried to start it a while ago and no spark from the coil. did i fry the coil or could this be a bigger issue? thanks.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Originally Posted by steve1ph2
seems i might have fried the msd blaster coil. lots of white smoke and smell came out of it. its a dual connector single coil msd #8226. i had the 6a connected to one terminal per instructions then i had another 12v source and the tach connected to the other nothing going to the msd distributor #8366 as i was just bumping the car over to get tdc on number 1. the dist was out. so unplugged it and proceded to install the dist and plug wires. the way i have it set up is im using the 6a box with it plugged up to the msd #8876 coil harness and coil which i know is right. then i have the other two wire connector from the dist hooked up the the other end of the coil harness. tried to start it a while ago and no spark from the coil. did i fry the coil or could this be a bigger issue? thanks.
Steve you may have fried both the coil and the box. On a typical MSD installation, the coil only has two wires connected. Both wires come from the MSD box. The wires that connect to the coil are the orange and the black wire. No other 12v source is connected to the coil as all power comes from the MSD box. On the MSD box you have a 12ga red and black wire, these go 12v B+ and ground respectively, then the 12v ignition power connects to smaller red wire. If ignition was applied to the coil along with the orange wire connected the box will fry as with the coil.
Using the MSD 8876 harness the only plug that should be connected to the blaster coil is the plug from that harness. Was the other 12v and tach lead connected to the coil as well? If so that is your problem
Last edited by tjwong; May 30, 2005 at 01:50 PM.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 752
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From: richardson tx
Originally Posted by tjwong
Steve you may have fried both the coil and the box. On a typical MSD installation, the coil only has two wires connected. Both wires come from the MSD box. The wires that connect to the coil are the orange and the black wire. No other 12v source is connected to the coil as all power comes from the MSD box. On the MSD box you have a 12ga red and black wire, these go 12v B+ and ground respectively, then the 12v ignition power connects to smaller red wire. If ignition was applied to the coil along with the orange wire connected the box will fry as with the coil.
Using the MSD 8876 harness the only plug that should be connected to the blaster coil is the plug from that harness. Was the other 12v and tach lead connected to the coil as well? If so that is your problem
Using the MSD 8876 harness the only plug that should be connected to the blaster coil is the plug from that harness. Was the other 12v and tach lead connected to the coil as well? If so that is your problem
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Originally Posted by steve1ph2
yea i had the other 12v and tach plugged up at the same time which is the side that the smoke was coming from. also trying to test the 6a with a volt meter with just the key on shouldnt i be getting a higher reading than 1.92 from the orange wire? or do i need to be cranking the motor?
To test the box, leave the coil connected to the box, then take the white wire on the box side and touch it to ground and then lift the wire off the ground. If the box is still ok the coil will fire, the other test is to take the violet and green wire and short them together, then everytime you disconnect them the coil should fire. If it fires with the white wire going to ground the box is ok and you can use it, if it doesn't but fires with the violet and green wire, you are screwed. This just means that the magnetic pick up circuit is ok but the white wire trigger circuit is bad. To do this test you will have to reuse your old GM coil. Just don't have that other 12v source connected to it.
The bad thing about electricity is that there is a lot of smoke that is contained in all the devices. Let the smoke out and the device won't work any more
Beleive me I have seen a lot of smoke in my days 
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
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From: richardson tx
thanks, im going to order another coil tuesday. try that first. does the other two wire connector from the dist plug into the other end of the msd coil harness? heres the rats nest before while i was making sure every thing was wired correctly (not). also where is a good place to mount the coil?c:\img_3195[/IMG]
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Originally Posted by steve1ph2
thanks, im going to order another coil tuesday. try that first. does the other two wire connector from the dist plug into the other end of the msd coil harness? heres the rats nest before while i was making sure every thing was wired correctly (not). also where is a good place to mount the coil?c:\img_3195[/IMG]
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 752
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From: richardson tx
Originally Posted by tjwong
If you have the MSD 8876 harness both of the original coil connectors on the GM harness connects to the MSD 8876 harness, on the other end only one plug should be connected to the coil. Then the MSD box connects to the MSD 8876 harness with the orange, black, red and white wires on the MSD box side. These wires are color mated to the same color wires on the 9987 adapter harness.
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Ahh I C, well to better explain the connections go here:
http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/6%20series/6series.pdf
http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/6%20series/6series.pdf
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
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From: richardson tx
thanks, actually i still have that manuel from when i bought my 6a a couple of years ago. but it says nothing about the #8366 or small cap gm distributor. thanks for your leg work and time.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,596
Likes: 19
From: Portland Oregon
Originally Posted by steve1ph2
thanks, actually i still have that manuel from when i bought my 6a a couple of years ago. but it says nothing about the #8366 or small cap gm distributor. thanks for your leg work and time.
Thats simple. On your small cap distributor you have two connectors on the HEI Module. One is a 4 pin (EST Harness) and the other is a two pin. On the two pin if you are using a GM harness, one is a pink wire(pin A). This is 12v ignition feed for the module, the other white wire is the coil negative wire that would fire the coil. In a stock scenario these two wires are the second plug that connects to the coil connector. However in your case, you need to connect that white wire to the white wire of your MSD box. The pink wire needs to be connected to 12v ignition power or to your original 12v hot wire to your HEI large cap. Then the orange and small black wire from the MSD box connects to Coil positive and Coil Negative respectively.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 752
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From: richardson tx
Originally Posted by tjwong
Thats simple. On your small cap distributor you have two connectors on the HEI Module. One is a 4 pin (EST Harness) and the other is a two pin. On the two pin if you are using a GM harness, one is a pink wire(pin A). This is 12v ignition feed for the module, the other white wire is the coil negative wire that would fire the coil. In a stock scenario these two wires are the second plug that connects to the coil connector. However in your case, you need to connect that white wire to the white wire of your MSD box. The pink wire needs to be connected to 12v ignition power or to your original 12v hot wire to your HEI large cap. Then the orange and small black wire from the MSD box connects to Coil positive and Coil Negative respectively.