- Joined
- May 27, 2001
- Messages
- 9,453
Got one of Shane's cars at the house doing some work on it getting it ready for a trip to the dyno. Shane had a MSD DIS-4 he wanted me to install but didn't have the Turbo Regal specific adapter. Ordered a couple of them from Summit and they arrived on Friday. Due to unforeseen circumstances, had to cancel the dyno session today but I decided to go ahead and put the thing on anyway.
Pulled the coil pack off the car and installed the plate. Mounted the box, set the switches and screwed it all back together. Pretty easy install altogether. Crank the car up and it runs like sh!t. Sounds like it's got a dead cylinder. Disconnect the DIS-4 and plug the bypass adapter in to it, car runs fine. So I'm thinking I might have a bad unit or I'm stupid and had the switches set wrong.
Called MSD, first guy answers the phone. I proceed to lay it out for him. Wired it up, yea, works with the bypass plug, etc, etc. Obviously he was reading from a cue card and says "Well, you need to verify the wiring". I say "Umm.. it works fine with the bypass plug in place and the only wiring in there connects the ignition module to the coil pack so it has to be wired right." He proceeds to tell me that no, MSD fires the coils in a "special way" and that it indeed could be hooked up wrong.
So I pull the coil pack back off the car, disassembled the adapter and verify the wiring. It's correct and I get pissed at the MSD guy for making me doubt myself. Put it all back together, move the ground just for laughs and start the car up.. same sh!t.. sounds like a dead cylinder.
Call MSD back again. Go through the whole spiel.. verified wiring, etc, etc, dead cylinder, blah blah. This genius says "Well, I think you have a plug wire that wont hold up under our increased spark load." Huh? I say "Well, maybe I have a bad unit?" MSD genius says "Not likely, our failure rate is very low."
So by now, I'm pretty much convinced the unit is bad. I call TurboKid, which is actually where this unit came from originally and talk to him about it. After some discussion, he agrees to loan me another one to try it and see if it is indeed a bad unit.
I drive over and pick his up, bring it home and hook it up and start the car and it does the same thing. So now I'm starting to think I have a bad adapter module. As I'm looking at the unit and being pissed off, I noticed that at the very end of the extension cable they provide with the adapter harness, one of the wires has an odd bulge in the side of it. Figuring maybe the wire is actually cut inside the casing, I extend the power and ground wires on the MSD so I can plug it directly into the side of the adapter plate. Car fires up and runs fine.
I had an extra adapter so I pulled the cable out of it and swapped them and remounted the box, etc. It's hard to believe that 4 calls to MSD got me nowhere except them continually putting the blame on me as to why the box didn't work. Granted I probably should have figured it out myself quicker but normally stuff WORKS out of the box, at least once or twice anyway before it pukes. Now we get to have fun trying to return the adapter. I called them back and they weren't helpful on the return end of things whatsoever. I guess we'll just have to return it to Summit and let them deal with MSD.
Pulled the coil pack off the car and installed the plate. Mounted the box, set the switches and screwed it all back together. Pretty easy install altogether. Crank the car up and it runs like sh!t. Sounds like it's got a dead cylinder. Disconnect the DIS-4 and plug the bypass adapter in to it, car runs fine. So I'm thinking I might have a bad unit or I'm stupid and had the switches set wrong.
Called MSD, first guy answers the phone. I proceed to lay it out for him. Wired it up, yea, works with the bypass plug, etc, etc. Obviously he was reading from a cue card and says "Well, you need to verify the wiring". I say "Umm.. it works fine with the bypass plug in place and the only wiring in there connects the ignition module to the coil pack so it has to be wired right." He proceeds to tell me that no, MSD fires the coils in a "special way" and that it indeed could be hooked up wrong.
So I pull the coil pack back off the car, disassembled the adapter and verify the wiring. It's correct and I get pissed at the MSD guy for making me doubt myself. Put it all back together, move the ground just for laughs and start the car up.. same sh!t.. sounds like a dead cylinder.
Call MSD back again. Go through the whole spiel.. verified wiring, etc, etc, dead cylinder, blah blah. This genius says "Well, I think you have a plug wire that wont hold up under our increased spark load." Huh? I say "Well, maybe I have a bad unit?" MSD genius says "Not likely, our failure rate is very low."
So by now, I'm pretty much convinced the unit is bad. I call TurboKid, which is actually where this unit came from originally and talk to him about it. After some discussion, he agrees to loan me another one to try it and see if it is indeed a bad unit.
I drive over and pick his up, bring it home and hook it up and start the car and it does the same thing. So now I'm starting to think I have a bad adapter module. As I'm looking at the unit and being pissed off, I noticed that at the very end of the extension cable they provide with the adapter harness, one of the wires has an odd bulge in the side of it. Figuring maybe the wire is actually cut inside the casing, I extend the power and ground wires on the MSD so I can plug it directly into the side of the adapter plate. Car fires up and runs fine.
I had an extra adapter so I pulled the cable out of it and swapped them and remounted the box, etc. It's hard to believe that 4 calls to MSD got me nowhere except them continually putting the blame on me as to why the box didn't work. Granted I probably should have figured it out myself quicker but normally stuff WORKS out of the box, at least once or twice anyway before it pukes. Now we get to have fun trying to return the adapter. I called them back and they weren't helpful on the return end of things whatsoever. I guess we'll just have to return it to Summit and let them deal with MSD.