MSD DIS-2
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Well...on Saturday I installed the coil pack that Eric was kind enough to give me and hooked up the MSD. Ran great. Stutterboxes are about cool as shit but never had a chance to try it in a race since the coil pack gave up on me about ten miles later!
So now Ive had 2 coil packs blow. This one died on me deaccelerating in traffic (coming to a light)...the first died as I let the car idle after first installing the MSD. Ran down to Discount Auto and picked up a rebuit unit for $106 ($99.99 + tax...how convenient). Swapped that coil pack out and headed for the street races after installing the MSD bypass plug (so I was operating as if it were stock). Damn the FMY street races were going off...lotta 12 second and faster cars (many on DOTs and some on slicks). Lotta fun until the Sherriff decided it was time to stop the fun.
After some good racing (and a lots of miles) on Sat. I stopped by a friends house a short distance from mine on Sunday. My car decided not to start which I automatically (and incorrectly apparently) assumed was the coil pack once again. After picking up a new one (simple exchange at Discount Auto) and installing the new coil pack (takes all of 10 minutes for me now) it still did not start (and jumping the car off did no good). Well...it started once and I shut it down and it would not restart. Battery load tested just fine...soo...
Thank God for manual trannys...a good old-fashioned push start and back to the garage it went. NOW is my starter failing? It was hot as hell on Sunday so Im assuming that the heat was causing the intermittent starter failure but I never once had a problem prior to the MSD install...and note that since I installed the new coil on Sat. night Ive been running the stock ignition.
Im still thinking that 10-year-old coils just dont like a high-output ignition but Im not willing to lose $100 testing that theory (really I just dont want to get stuck on the side of the road again). Either way my Talon will be down until I can replace the starter (or track down the cause of the no-start condition).
Anyway I wanted to thank Eric and Aaron for hooking me up with that coil pack Friday night... Its guys like that who make owning a DSM fun... Many thanks guys...
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
So now Ive had 2 coil packs blow. This one died on me deaccelerating in traffic (coming to a light)...the first died as I let the car idle after first installing the MSD. Ran down to Discount Auto and picked up a rebuit unit for $106 ($99.99 + tax...how convenient). Swapped that coil pack out and headed for the street races after installing the MSD bypass plug (so I was operating as if it were stock). Damn the FMY street races were going off...lotta 12 second and faster cars (many on DOTs and some on slicks). Lotta fun until the Sherriff decided it was time to stop the fun.
After some good racing (and a lots of miles) on Sat. I stopped by a friends house a short distance from mine on Sunday. My car decided not to start which I automatically (and incorrectly apparently) assumed was the coil pack once again. After picking up a new one (simple exchange at Discount Auto) and installing the new coil pack (takes all of 10 minutes for me now) it still did not start (and jumping the car off did no good). Well...it started once and I shut it down and it would not restart. Battery load tested just fine...soo...
Thank God for manual trannys...a good old-fashioned push start and back to the garage it went. NOW is my starter failing? It was hot as hell on Sunday so Im assuming that the heat was causing the intermittent starter failure but I never once had a problem prior to the MSD install...and note that since I installed the new coil on Sat. night Ive been running the stock ignition.
Im still thinking that 10-year-old coils just dont like a high-output ignition but Im not willing to lose $100 testing that theory (really I just dont want to get stuck on the side of the road again). Either way my Talon will be down until I can replace the starter (or track down the cause of the no-start condition).
Anyway I wanted to thank Eric and Aaron for hooking me up with that coil pack Friday night... Its guys like that who make owning a DSM fun... Many thanks guys...
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
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If you are nutty enough to drive all that way...Im not messin with ya! 
Olde Skool DSM'r
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Hey?!? Whats with that?
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
Olde Skool DSM'r
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 612
Likes: 0
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Well...I decided to tear one of the Tach Interfaces apart to see exactly what blew up. Both had a burned out resistor...I also sketched a VERY rough schematic of the interface that Im going to try and modify to allow the stock tach to work on the 90 models.
Its quite a simple circuit...
2 Diodes
2 Resistors
1 Capacitor?? (somewhat burned...need to find a good condition piece to check)
Thats it. Not exactly a complicated piece of electronics... Im going to try to get one of the bad coil packs to work without the tach interface hooked up. If thats possible then Im going to try redesigning the tach interface circuit to work with the stock tach...not sure how far Ill get but Im hoping some of those EE courses I took actually sank in (now whether I remember any of it...).
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
Its quite a simple circuit...
2 Diodes
2 Resistors
1 Capacitor?? (somewhat burned...need to find a good condition piece to check)
Thats it. Not exactly a complicated piece of electronics... Im going to try to get one of the bad coil packs to work without the tach interface hooked up. If thats possible then Im going to try redesigning the tach interface circuit to work with the stock tach...not sure how far Ill get but Im hoping some of those EE courses I took actually sank in (now whether I remember any of it...).
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
Olde Skool DSM'r
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 612
Likes: 0
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Hmmm...well I yanked the tach interface off of my original coil pack (the interface that blew up on me) and taped off the wires (from the coil) that feed the interface. Once I installed the coil pack on my car it fired right up...go figure. 
Im thinking that I could throw a good tach interface in front of the MSD and get the stock tach to work that way...but I dont want to buy a coil pack just for the interface. I may also try reworking the circuit to get the interface to work in its current location (maybe throw some resistors in line with the coil feeds to the interface).
Dunno...anyway moral of the story... REMOVE THE TACH INTERFACE from the coil pack on a 90 before installing the MSD! Im sure a new interface would have survived longer but the resistor will eventually blow out.
If I find a way to hook the stock tach up I will be sure to update everyone...dunno maybe someone else will find the info useful.
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
Im thinking that I could throw a good tach interface in front of the MSD and get the stock tach to work that way...but I dont want to buy a coil pack just for the interface. I may also try reworking the circuit to get the interface to work in its current location (maybe throw some resistors in line with the coil feeds to the interface).
Dunno...anyway moral of the story... REMOVE THE TACH INTERFACE from the coil pack on a 90 before installing the MSD! Im sure a new interface would have survived longer but the resistor will eventually blow out.
If I find a way to hook the stock tach up I will be sure to update everyone...dunno maybe someone else will find the info useful.
------------------
John
90 Talon TSi AWD (2KW K4U)
91 Galant VR-4 (1574/2000)
http://tampabay.dsm.org
