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Technical Help, No Spark MSD Distrubutor

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by bradberry00, Aug 6, 2023.

  1. bradberry00
    Joined: Feb 5, 2003
    Posts: 683

    bradberry00
    Member

    Hello All,

    Hoping someone can give me a little advice. My 55 F100 has a 351W in it with an MSD "Ready To Run" distributor. My truck ran about two weeks ago when I fired it up to move it, I went to start it last week and nothing. After some troubleshooting, it looks like I am not getting spark to the plugs. Coil seems good after testing. Seem to have good grounds and 12v where it's supposed to be. Could it be a bad module in the distributor? Anyway I could test that before dropping cash on a replacement?

    Thanks in advance for any help!
    -david
     
  2. 19Eddy30
    Joined: Mar 27, 2011
    Posts: 2,753

    19Eddy30
    Member
    from VA

    Did you do any welding or ark any wires , with out disconnecting unplug Power or battery to MSD ?
    It will take out/ burn MSD,

    there are trouble shooting on web site & in the instructions ( near last pages)
     
  3. squirrel
    Joined: Sep 23, 2004
    Posts: 57,467

    squirrel
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    You can still buy a rebuilt Ford distributor for those....

    dist.jpg
     
    Moriarity and Day 2 like this.
  4. bradberry00
    Joined: Feb 5, 2003
    Posts: 683

    bradberry00
    Member

    No welding....there was a weird power outage at my house though that took out some of our florescent lights and tripped most of our GFCI outlets....not sure if that could be related but it so odd that I can't rule it out.

    I am tempted to just do this honestly, as the replacement parts for the MSD are about the price of these.
     
    Johnny Gee likes this.
  5. lumpy 63
    Joined: Aug 2, 2010
    Posts: 3,131

    lumpy 63
    Member

    I have MSD stuff in most of my cars, but I will not use the ready to run distributors. I have seen several failures of these some right out of the box.
     
    saltflats likes this.
  6. justpassinthru
    Joined: Jul 23, 2010
    Posts: 590

    justpassinthru
    Member

    According to MSD, there is no practical way to test the module in the RTR dist.
    Make sure center electrode in cap is not burnt out. (Apparently a common problem)
    Swap to a known good coil.
    Check for voltage at coil.
    Check wiring etc.

    We use the RTR distributors alot, and have had only one fail the module, after years of use.
    Some say the module is failure prone, but we have not really seen that.
    Distributor has to be completely disassembled to replace.
     
    egads likes this.
  7. hepme
    Joined: Feb 1, 2021
    Posts: 574

    hepme
    Member

    Had an msd ready to run unit damaged by a fire--called them, got an rma and sent it in-$75. they sent it back like new--i guess it was the same one 'cause it sure looked new to me. They sold me.
     
    egads and G-son like this.
  8. saltflats
    Joined: Aug 14, 2007
    Posts: 12,881

    saltflats
    Member
    from Missouri

    You can eliminate the module inside that distributor and use a 6al box.
     
    lumpy 63 likes this.
  9. egads
    Joined: Aug 23, 2011
    Posts: 1,423

    egads
    Member

    X 2 on sending it to MSD. Had 1 go bad because the guy gave it a bad ground, Took about a week turnaround and was $75.00 also.
     

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