hey everyone just thought i would share my frustation i have been going through these last few days. The other day my 76 p.u. just would not start i figured ignitor, and i was right no problem i will just go to the local auto parts store. $384.00 for something that is nowhere near the quality of the factory part so i thought i would try the G.M. ignition mod. worst decision ever after doing the mod the truck fired right up, the next morning a different story that same afternoon after changing out some new G.M. parts guess what? Well a repeat of the day before this went on for a couple more days weak spark no spark then at times spark everything had power where it was supposed to. To make a long story short M.S.D 6Al ignition box with M.S.D. blaster coil, gets rid of factory coil and Ignitor and the truck runs better than it ever has its also very easy to wire up.

 

Sorry to hear you had issues with the hei swap. Just wait till that 6al pukes in a year or two. I've had several die out of the blue and my last one slowly lost power till it finally died one day. I did my first hei module swap that day using the same blaster ss coil I'd been using with the 6al and I decided right then and there to never bother with another msd box.

I converted my current truck to an msd HEI module using an OG jacobs ultra coil. We'll worth the minimal effort and cash spent.

 

@White Trash I read a post on another thread Upgrading 22R Ignition you said you had swapped out for an aftermarket high output coil with a GM hei ignition module. What GM HEI ignition module did you use? Also what other ignition module options do I have without spending an arm and a leg?

 

I'm currently running this module but it's coming out and going into another rig with a small block chevy V8. The module works great but the rev limiter doesn't work since the 4 cylinder only makes half of the required ignition pulses to set the rev limiter rpm. I'll be going with this pertronix module if I find out the rev limiter is compatible with a 4 cylinder. If it isn't going to work I'll just use this non rev limiter module with an external rev limiter. In all reality any hei module from off the shelf of your local parts store is going to out perform the stock ignition so there is no need to go crazy.

 

The msd box i used is 3 years old and its still kicking plus it was given to me free of charge. I read an article in hot rod mag about counterfeit parts the msd box was one of the parts being portrayed as an original part and was very hard to tell that it wasnt made by msd that might have been some of your issue with msd. I was all for the gm conversion but it just wouldnt work for me i have heard many say the same thing and have exactly the same issues i was having. When i went to change out gm parts i got the black module and a different coil also replaced the distributor i was at a total loss as to what could be the problem

 

I've never heard of an msd box being counterfeited but I guess anything is possible. I set my ignition up using factory connectors so if an issue arises all I have to do is unbolt the jacobs coil and bolt the stock coil & ignitor in its place and plug it all back in. I don't see that being an issue any decade soon though.


Good luck with the msd box, maybe we just have opposite luck.

 

There are a ton of fake MSD boxes floating around out there. It's a well known issue among old-school hotrod guys and there are lists of known bad serial numbers if you have a box that you're curious about.

Then there's shady nonsense like this:

PROCOMP is just a bunch of douche bags - Yellow Bullet Forums

FWIW I've had average luck with MSD stuff. I've never had a box die, but I have had coils die. Also their spark plug wires are crap.

The old Jacobs stuff like your coil is really good if you can find it at a swap meet or on craigslist. The new stuff is hot garbage though.

 

Oh wow I'd never heard of fake msd boxes. At least all of mine that puked were epoxy filled not hollow with an hei module screwed inside of it.

That procomp box reminds me of old swap meet amplifiers. My neighbor or bought one that was supposed to be 2000 watts that was about 12x24" and heavy. I hooked it up for him and it sounded like crap. I opened it up to find a small amplifier board on one side and about 20" of wire hot glued to the heat sink running to the outputs on the other side. It was heavy because there were 4 1/4" thick pieces of steel plate screwed to the backing plate.

 

Yeah I did the GM conversion last week and nothing! I triple checked every connection and verified I had it wired up correctly but still no spark from the ICM. I'm gonna hit up some of the local junk yards to pickup some Toyota ICM this weekend.

 

Did you swap the wires around going to the distributor? When I did the conversion on my 78 it wouldn't even sputter until I reversed those wires. On my 89 it ran but reed very slowly. Reversed them and now it rune better than ever.

 

Yeah I swapped them multiple times, re-grounded it multiple times and went over all the wiring multiple times still no spark! I followed these instructions Toyota Ignition & Coil Bypass

 

EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE!

No spark, no NOTHING. I went back to the 86 ignitor I had been using and it started right up! 84 22r motor new dizzy (79) with a 38/38.

I'm searching out a good deal on an MSD box-I think the idle will be much better/smoother.

 

Ok so i broke down yesterday and went ahead and bought the MSD 6A ignition and the MSD Blaster 2 coil!! Gonna have to find a day this week and put it in! Mad excited fot it tho!!

 

Jegs is offering a $25 mail-in-rebate on MSD products with a purchases over $250. Pretty good deal I think! I had completely forgot the ICM's White Trash had recommended me that are on page one of this thread! Those were all under $100!!

 

I put the Mallory 6A and coil on mine and it would idle fine with the electronic dizzy but missfired bad when I reved it so I just put a points dizzy back in it.