Magnetic and Non-Magnetic Pickup Values

[msd_admin]

When trouble-shooting your MSD Ignition and you have a no spark situation make sure your distributor or crank trigger pickup is triggering the ignition. This handy chart will tell you if you pickup has gone bad. All you need is a meter to check the resistance between the pickup. If you using one of our own MSD distributors, it will have a magnetic pickup. If your using a crank trigger it will have a non-magnetic pickup. Use the following chart to find the correct resistance for your pickup thereby letting you know that your ignition is okay and the pickup is bad. Click here for the resistance values.

[rallye bob]

MSD Tech Bullrtin #109 says a crank trigger non-magnetic pickup should be 65-85 OHMS

[MadVenomm]

It won't fire unless I use a hand magnet against the sensor. Stumped.....

[camminc]

Originally Posted by msd_admin

When trouble-shooting your MSD Ignition and you have a no spark situation make sure your distributor or crank trigger pickup is triggering the ignition. This handy chart will tell you if you pickup has gone bad. All you need is a meter to check the resistance between the pickup. If you using one of our own MSD distributors, it will have a magnetic pickup. If your using a crank trigger it will have a non-magnetic pickup. Use the following chart to find the correct resistance for your pickup thereby letting you know that your ignition is okay and the pickup is bad. Click here for the resistance values.

Hi, I noticed there are no values for an E-Curve? I need to test my E-curve. It has ran for a year okay but one day I had no spark. Coil seems to read okay, 1.3 ohms primary and 5.6k secondary. Don't know which wires to test on the E-curve it'self. Red, Orange and Black with ohm meter or what readings should be or if I need to rotate the distributor to get readings, etc.

Can you provide this information. Thanks.

[Tom P]

On the old style 8505 magnetic crank trigger pickup i get 442 ohms, does this mean it's bad? I can get a spark shorting the purple and orange pickup wires but nothing when cranking even closing up the pickup gap.

[vh770]

hi,

in the link provided it says the 84661 pickup should have a resistance range of 500-700 ohms.

In my aftermarket TSP distributor (not MSD, but i have every reason to believe it is exactly the same pickup; it certainly looks 100% identical), my resistance reading is between 0.751 and 0.765 kΩ. My problem is that i have no spark but my 5520 is sparking the coil correctly (when the spark test is performed).

does this mean the pickup needs replacing? would exposed wire (i.e. plastic insulation stripped partially off the wire at some point, but no chance of short circuit) affect/increase the resistance reading?

thanks

[Lazarus]

The picture of the distributor and multimeter shows a reading of .59 Kohms. Depending on the meter, you will probably have to use the lowest Kohm range for magnetic pickup readings. So, a reading of .751 K is the same as 751 ohms. The sensor is good.