Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

Have done any welding on the car?

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

i had mine for 10 years and even put a hole thru it with a 1/4 drill by accident still works fine ,,of coarse you get those ones that just are junk out of the box gmonde

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

When it somes to welding on a racecar I can give you some advice.

I am Miller and Lincoln Certifed as a repair tech on their machines

Mig welding is DC at fairly low voltage....around 20 volts and really all you need to do is keep you work clamp close to the weld site.....It certainly couln't hurt to go further and disconnect you ignition box or even remove it but it's not necessary....

The big issue with welders is HF used for arc starting with a Tig welder......and the arc coming out of a plasma cutter is similar to HF.....but even more likely to cause a problem with sensitive electronics.....

At the very least anything electronic should be disconnected if your using a tig with HF or a plasma cutter.......

Now someone will come on here and say he never removes anything and never hurt a thing.........thats the usual response on the Interent.....If it's my car I'm doing my best to protect my electronics.....

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

I'm probably nuts, but my ECU and MSD box come out of the car before I tig weld on it.

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

You're definately not nuts Ed and I agree. My Lt-1 had to much stuff in it that could get hurt.......I did mig weld on the car and as I said never removed anything for that process......

I used a plasma cutter on a few vehicles over the years and had at least one that failed to start after the work I did. It was a work truck and I cut something in the rear suspension. Fuel pump circuit was killed in the ECU.....Ford. I rigged up a seperate circuit rather than replace the computer....Never used a plasma again on anything in the shop that had electronics attached to it....

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

Thank you all for your comments and input. A local racer has offered
to loan me his good tested spare MSD 6AL and a good distributor
so I can test everything and then replace the correct bad parts instead
of just throwing money at it.

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

I spoke with Pat from Techwest he was very helpful in tracking down a small problem with my ing. system. He just verbally gave me some advise and it worked. He does repair all kinds of MSD's. I will send hime my MSD's to be upgraded.

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

hi, just a thought. I mounted my 7al2 on the floor panel passenger side, with rubber mounts, ran a ground to block. its way away from heat of any kind. been in car since 1990.

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

I really thought I remembered the 6AL coming out in the late 80s or early 90s? I've had a few with only 1 problem, I sent it back out of warranty and as I recall, they repaired it for near nothing. Probably because it was an internal fuse . Call them and check cost, likely well worth sending in.

Re: Failure rate of a MSD 6AL?
 

That is how mine is, with a 10 ga ground wire directly to the back of the pass side cylinder head.