msd 6AL quits then works again?

I was on my way to a cruise last night and driving down the road my stang just died and would just crank over with no fire. It was def getting gas. MSD box is mounted at right front of inner fender as well as coil and it has been there for years with no issues but it did feal hot. The temp outside was about 91 degrees and the engine temp was about 185 but dont know what under hood temp was, it has a cowl hood. so it sat for about 30 minutes and still would'nt start, i had a flatbed come pick us up and take it home and when it was unloaded, i hit the key and it fired right up and i drove it back in the garage. could this be that the box shut down cause of heat temps and after it cool down it was good or could it be the coil (MSD II)

Whaat kid of dist. do you have,bad pick ups will act that way.Coil will also act that way.I don't know any way of testing either of them except parts swapping.Most of the time a MSD box either works or it doesn't but they don't like heat.Look at all of your grounds good if they are not good it will make a box do some strange stuff.

dr's wife racing wrote:Whaat kid of dist. do you have,bad pick ups will act that way.Coil will also act that way.I don't know any way of testing either of them except parts swapping.Most of the time a MSD box either works or it doesn't but they don't like heat.Look at all of your grounds good if they are not good it will make a box do some strange stuff.

You can check the MSD with one of their testers, Like the "old school" one I have. Through the testing , you can narrow it down...Distrib or MSD/ coil
I have seen the pick-ups in the distrib do this..the hard way

Have you been welding on the car? That can mess things up if the grounds aren't removed beforehand.

the dizzy is the stock one locked down using only for a trigger (SBF) and no I havent done any welding on car for years now. The ignition consist of an MSD6AL box, Blater II coil and an MSD Boost control box as I have a SC on it.

Sounds like the msd is getting ready to crap out. I had one on my 68 mustang do the exact same thing. I was riding to town one night and it died in the parking lot. Wouldn't fire for nothin. Went in and ate and cooled off,came back out and it fired right up. Died one more time before I got home though. I sent it out and had msd check it out,they fixed the problem and everything was good again. I hope it's that simple for you, I don't like electrical gremlins.....

One more thing, make sure you mount the little stand offs between the box and mounting surface. This ensures you have a little airflow on the backside of the box. ---RED

61coon wrote:Sounds like the msd is getting ready to crap out. I had one on my 68 mustang do the exact same thing. I was riding to town one night and it died in the parking lot. Wouldn't fire for nothin. Went in and ate and cooled off,came back out and it fired right up. Died one more time before I got home though. I sent it out and had msd check it out,they fixed the problem and everything was good again. I hope it's that simple for you, I don't like electrical gremlins.....

^^^^this, same thing happened to me. Put on a new box and never did it again.

61coon wrote:Sounds like the msd is getting ready to crap out. I had one on my 68 mustang do the exact same thing. I was riding to town one night and it died in the parking lot. Wouldn't fire for nothin. Went in and ate and cooled off,came back out and it fired right up. Died one more time before I got home though. I sent it out and had msd check it out,they fixed the problem and everything was good again. I hope it's that simple for you, I don't like electrical gremlins.....

whats was the cost of doing that verses buying a new one? sounds just like what happend to me other than I didnt drive it home.

61coon wrote:One more thing, make sure you mount the little stand offs between the box and mounting surface. This ensures you have a little airflow on the backside of the box. ---RED

did that years ago also.Thanks

stanggt wrote:

61coon wrote:Sounds like the msd is getting ready to crap out. I had one on my 68 mustang do the exact same thing. I was riding to town one night and it died in the parking lot. Wouldn't fire for nothin. Went in and ate and cooled off,came back out and it fired right up. Died one more time before I got home though. I sent it out and had msd check it out,they fixed the problem and everything was good again. I hope it's that simple for you, I don't like electrical gremlins.....

whats was the cost of doing that verses buying a new one? sounds just like what happend to me other than I didnt drive it home.

Best I remember, it was around 35 bucks. That was in 2001 also....

I have a 6al sitting on the shelf that does this very thing.

I believe they quoted me $50 but that included shipping back to me been a little over a year though.

it was the 6al box, changed it out and installed the new one on the outside of the inner fender so it stays cool and works great.Now will send old one out to get fixed.

Thanks guys
chris

You can check those boxes w/short jumper wire,connecting box side plug connecter together. Then turning the ign. switch on and the coil wire will jump blue fire to the coil and make a chirping sound when the jumper wire is touched to either side of the terminal.