Revival!

Picked up my 1991 Honda Civic w/ DOHC ZC yesterday. It's got the MSD 6AL box and MSD Ignition Coil on it and I believe the MSD is bad. The problem is more then I had thought. It ran perfect till about half way home and what would happen was the car would just shut off, not just sputter. I pulled over and it would crank but not start. Towed it home and parked it for the night.

Went out this morning to start it, cranks and start fine but will randomly shut off after idling for a bit. I'm trying to figure out what I need from a stock civic to replace my MSD crap and noticed there were two wires coming off the MSD 6AL box and into the distributor. Anyone know what these are connected too? Maybe Ignition Control Module?

If I were to scrap the MSD 6AL, where would the wires coming from my distributor then connect too?

 

I'll get some pictures up later today if that would help anyone.

My brother is telling me to just scrap the MSD 6AL box and MSD Coil and just buy a stock Ignition coil. IF those two MSD items were scraped, is an Ignition Coil all I would need.

 

MSD 6AL Box


These are the wires coming from the 6AL and into the distributor, not sure if these are only connected because of the MSD or if they need to be replaced when taking off the MSD.


MSD Coil


And just an engine shot

 

If everything was stock my guess would be a faulty main relay or ignitor.
Mihgt be worth checking before tossing the MSD. MSD isn't junk, but it's not necessary on a stock engine.

 

the 2 wires coming out of the distributor to the MSD are connected inside the distributor to the 2 wires that went to the stock internal coil

to me, it sounds more like a problem wth the main relay than a problem with the MSD

 

4drEF- It's not the stock engine, unless you mean stock ZC then yes.

jlicrx- I've been told that the MSD boxes will sometimes just go bad. And people with it before have reverted back to stock ignition and now works perfectly.

I talked to a Honda owner here in town that should be coming over later. What he suggested was trying to throw a stock distributor with internal ignition coil on and disconnecting all the MSD to see if that would work.

This is supposed to be my DD, I <3 my Honda but I love Nissans even more. Just need this thing to drive.

 

Meant stock as in not modified.
Stock honda ignition is good for bolt-ons and even low boost applications.
It becomes an issue with high boost.

 

been running MSD for many years - my experience has been, when they go bad, they go bad - they don't work sometimes and not work other times - they either work or they don't work

 

jlicrx- Yep, thats what I've been hearing. When they work, they work. Other then that there not so good. I'm caught in between thinking the MSD is bad or it's something else. I'm going to switch out the distributor later today and go back to a stock coil as well as disconnecting all MSD to see if that solves anything.

Then grab a Main Relay and see if that does it. Yesterday, when i picked up the car, it hadn't been started or driven for a while (months). So it drove PERFECT for about 20-25 minutes doing no more then 40mph. I'm wondering if it starts to shut off after the engine warms up. If so, that might be the Main Relay correct?

 

When it shut off what happened when you tried to start it back up?
When you turned the key from off to on did the fuel pump prime?
That's a dead give-away to a main relay issue.

 

I do believe the fuel pump would prime! After driving it yesterday then trying to turn it back on, it just cranked, no start, had to tow it home.

Today when I went out and cranked, it started, then died after 2 minutes or so. Cranked it again and started, stayed at idle for 5-6 minutes or so then died. If I want, I can go out and start it with no problem right now, it just won't stay running for too long.

Is that any help?