Over the weekend while out for a joy ride the ignition just up and quit while idling at a light. No spark, no voltage to the coil. I had to have a friend pick me up so I could get my spare Orange Box from home and wire it in on the side of the road. Sure enough, it started right up and didn't miss a beat the entire way home.

The thing is, I didn't notice any difference in the way it drove. Throttle response was exactly the same, and even cold starting the next day was OK.

Instead of dropping another $200 on a replacement I'm thinking of just going back the Mopar ECU. The only thing I would lose is the rev limiting. What do you guys think?

I've seen more orange boxes go bad than MSDs I was even there to help LTDan finish up swapping one out of a General Lee at Carlisle this past summer. by the time I showed up he had all the grunt work done, and I was mostly there to help get the fuel floats set right again and mostly stand there and say "good job Dan!"


the only time I had an MSD fail on me was after it got wet.

sent it back to them and they fixed it for $40.

Call up MSD, I bet they can fix it for you for a fair price.

I'd be hard pressed not to buy another MSD box if my 6A quit. I'd go with a digital over an analog box, but I'd want another. Cleaned up my idle a bit and I bought it used over 5 years ago..who knows how old my box really is, but it's held up great!

I just picked up Summits MSD, I only bought it for the rev limiter, I doubt it will improve much of anything...maybe start easier and maybe help a tiny bit under 3000rpm. I also went w/ an MSD on my old 67 'net. Noticed no real improvement over the orange box that was in the car. Only went w/ MSD then because It had a boost delay dial. I plan on leaving the current orange box inplace...just incase. I'm lucky I guess I've never had a problem with an orange box.

I replaced my FBO ECU with a MSD Street Fire box (with rev limiter) and I found much easier starts especially hot restarts.

The Street Fire box can be bought from $119-$149 and the FBO ECU is now $184. I will buy a backup Street Fire box and have all of the terminals installed for a quick swap in the case of an issue when I am driving.

I vote MSD.

I had forgotten all about being able to send it in. I just assumed since it was eight years old that I was SOL. I'll give them a call. Thanks a lot guys.

A lot of people have to send MSD boxes in to get them fixed,but people keep buying them because they are what everybody thinks they need. I personally don't like them,and don't run them on my own cars.
There were a bad run of MP orange boxes,but last I knew they took care of that issue.
The only reason I run an MSD box on my dyno is because everybody thinks you need one. I see more people having issues with the new digital ones than the older analog units.
I can tell you that on my dyno,the old orange box performs better than the new ones,and runs exactly the same up to 6500 RPM as the chrome boxes. I have seen a few horsepower with the MSD but other systems can make just as much power.
I run an Accel system on my personal bracket car,but I am testing seveal other things to decide what I want to use and recommend in the future.

Keith

Keith

I have a MSD 6T in my truck that I got back in 1997...it's still working fine. no complaints here.

I personally think MSD is way overrated and a waste of money on a street car. I've never had a problem with the orange box's, but, I heard they had a crappy run of them several years back.

had a digital 6 go bad on me. weird thing was it was an intermittent problem. damn thing would shut off while driving and not restart for like a half hour. drove me nuts. finally i changed back over to the stock style electronic ign and haven't had an issue since ( 3 years). didn't touch the dizzy or anything other then pulling the MSD out and putting the stock style ECU in. all the wiring looked fine, connections were good and all. still have no idea what was wrong with that MSD. i liked the analog 6al better. at least when that was bad it just didn't work at all...

have all the stuff here to install a HEI module but haven't gotten around to it yet. that will eliminate the ballast and ECU so it will clean things up a bit and the module will be cake to find on the shelf of just about any parts store if i ever have a problem with it.

Read this,guys!! Lots of interesting info here on the MSD boxes.
http://classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=37282

Could be! That link came from the race forum. I think my coil is junk and somebody posted that. If I can gain a little in power from a coil swap,that would be cool!