MSD choke wire no start condition figured out

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ceheler

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
53
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Location
Durham, Ca
My Car
1971 Mustang
351C 4V - slightly modified
C-6
9" Rear factory 3:00 gears
Looked around to see if others had passed on the understanding or had run into this issue and didn't find anything and figured i would put this in a thread so that if others run into the issue they may search and find it.

I had a friend over and we were cleaning the wiring up under the hood which is quite a task for our cars in my opinion. We eliminated the voltage regulator by putting in a single wire alternator and relocated the battery tender behind the passenger headlight out of sight and moved the MSD next to the wiper fluid reservoir and moved the starter solenoid. In the process we also cleaned up the MSD 6AL wiring. My friend that was helping took the electric choke wire and hooked it up to the (+) side of the coil because this is how his old nova was set up. I will say it looks a lot cleaner after lots of mechanic fluid had been drank it was late so we decided to call it a night.

The next day i went out to fire it up and check the alternator for voltage and regulator response and the car wouldnt start. It cranked strong but no go. So i went through the typical troubleshooting and found i had no spark out of the coil. No big deal i pulled one off of my shelf and put it on. Still no start. Checked the MSD box all as well. Put the old coil on and left the wire for the choke off and it started right up.

My guess is that the choke was drawing enough amperage that the coils primary winding wasn't getting enough to produce a good spark. So for those who run into the issue later on down the road at least in my case, (MSD 6AL, Pertronix ignitor II, and pertronix coil, holly street avenger 770 electric choke) DO NOT hook the electric choke to the coil if you want it to run. Looks good but its a big ol' no go on the whole running and driving thing. Decided I'm going to get an EZ wiring kit anyways to clean it up 165 bucks for painless quality. ( http://www.ezwiring.com/wiring_harness.html ) put one on a friends jeep easy install and has its own choke wire :D

 
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