Testing 6A

pismorat · #1 10-28-2009, 07:21 PM

I am suspicious of my 6A box being faulty. I have a new distributor with HEI coil, new wires and plugs. The 6A is about 8 years old and on the firewall of my '79 Chevy 4x4. It just died out at the desert and I am wanting to test it. I disconnected the coil wire and left it about .5" from gnd and jumpered the green & violet wires with the key on. I got no spark when I broke the short with the jumper. What I did get was a high pitch beep from the 6A box when I shorted the wires. What does this mean and what are the next steps? Oh yeah, and I am getting 12v to the small red wire and have a good ground, all the wiring seems good.

msdtech22 · #2 10-29-2009, 08:24 AM

Unfortunately, it does sound as if you do have a faulty unit. You can send that into us for repair at a nominal charge ($23.00 - $87.40 not including applicable sales tax and shipping charges)

Here is a link explaining the procedure for sending that in:

http://www.msdignition.com/RMA_step0.aspx

pismorat · #3 10-29-2009, 11:49 AM

Would it be worth trying my old coil at this point or not?

msdtech22 · #4 10-30-2009, 08:35 AM

Replace the coil with one that you know works and perform the 'false trigger test' as outlined in this link: http://www.msdignition.com/page.aspx?id=3206

pismorat · #5 11-02-2009, 06:56 PM

Tested it with a 2nd coil, still no spark. So I just took the box out, then went to wire in my stock condenser unit under the rotor just to get it running temporarily. I found that the two leads had become disconnected from the purple/green harness when the weights caught them or something. Should I hook the box back up to test it again, could this have been the problem? Could this have done damage still to the 6A unit so I should still send it in?

msdtech22 · #6 11-03-2009, 08:31 AM

If you performed the false trigger test as outlined in the link I sent you, you should have used the violet/green wires going into the box to test for spark. You state that even after changing the coil, you still didn't get spark. This leads me to believe that the unit is faulty, especially since you heard the high pitched 'chirp'.

However, as long as the unit is still wired up, it won't take much time to test it as a running condition once more.

You really are not going to lose anything but a little time.

The two wire magnetic pickup being disconnected would have done no damage to the unit except prevent the unit from firing.

pismorat · #7 11-03-2009, 05:59 PM

Yes, that is what I thought. I will get an RMA # and send it in this week. Thanks for the help so far.

msdtech22 · #8 11-04-2009, 09:20 AM

Not a problem, anytime we can help.