Hey ya'll....
Curious on something.. Just finished priming the engine. Before we give it the initial heave-ho, I want to make sure the ignition is ready to go. The ignition is a MSD-6A and the wiring was pretty straight forward and I believe I have that fine. What are the normal testing steps to make sure things are squared away before we attempt to fire up the motor for the 1st time. It is in a '71 E-body, 440........

Thanks in advance..
Troy

Plug a spare dist into the eng harness. Have the coil wire (dist end) held 1/4" from a ground. Key on (ign1). spin the dist shaft with your free hand & see if the coil wire sparks. Pull the yellow "ign" wire from the starter relay to disable the starter & repeat the test in "start" to see if it's getting fire in ign2 (crank). I'd set your initial to 10( mild cam) & 15 (wild cam) & set the magnet dead even with the reluctor. On an unrelated note read "breakin secrets" at www.mototuneusa.com

Thanks.
But I don't have a spare distributor. The harness for the distributor is unique to the MSD-6A system.

One wire, unused with a magnetic pickup distributor setup, is the points trigger wire. If you energize the system and hold the high tension lead near the block like he said, then tap the trigger wire to ground to simulate points opening and closing. As you pull it off the ground you should see spark or even a crackling multiple spark.

I unplug the distributor 2-wire lead before I do this, not sure if it matters.

No go.. I have voltage to the ballast resistor ( which really isn't one, I took out the coil and replaced it with a 14/gauge wire, 12 v in, 12v out ). I have voltage to the + side of the coil as well with ignition 1 on. Try to crank it, no juice out the coil wire to the distributor. The coil was warm to the touch when I replaced it with a known good coil. Sooooooo, I'm at a lose with the dang thing. I spoke to a friend who has put many in Mopars and my wiring is correct.

1. Big red > positive battery
2. Big black > negative battery
3. small red > ignition 1 ( ballast resistor )
4. white wire > no where, not needed
5. orange wire > positive coil
6. small black > negative coil

The distributor lead (magnetic pickup) goes from the control box to the distributor with supplied harness in box.

Make sure you have 12 volts/voltage on the small red when cranking.

if you wired everything per the instructions then you're overstressing. crank it up!

Figured it out....
Well, with the combination of the MSD installation pdf file I found online (reflecting the Chrysler electronic ignition system, not the points which this car started life with). Well, I didn't know I needed to remove the brown 12v feed at the +-side of the coil, I thought I would keep that there and place the orange + wire of the MSD harness there. Well, apparently leaving the brown OEM wire grounds the MSD system. I removed the brown + wire and sure enough, LOTS of spark coming out of the coil lead to the distributor. So, I'll wait till my buddy arrives tomorrow before the game and we'll attempt to fire her up. Don't wanna do it without him...... So ends the night with one less thing to stress out over since I was able to solve it...

Thanks all in guiding me to my process of elimination and discovery.