MSD digital 6 with factory distributor

I cant get my car to fire. I got the red LED light on, I get spark from the coil when I jumper the green and violet wires. Its like the box isnt getting a signal from the pick up in the distributor. I tried two working ones, one factory and one Mopar performance. Do I need to use an MSD distributor? I triple checked the wiring and the grounds.

No, you don't need an MSD dist. You should be using the mag pickup lead (purple/green) wired to the dist pickup wires. (Box white wire not used)
You false triggered box by jumpering, and it worked, so box and coil are good.
If you have purple and green switched, it just retards timing, won't hurt anything.

Good Luck

I am using the green and violet. Green to the black and violet to the orange wires to the distributor. No spark to the plugs

check the gap on the pickup coil?

How much gap is there supposed to be?

i got mine set at 8 thous.been workin good many years.

.008 is spec... if it sparks jumping the box side of the
dist then your pick up is bad(if your gap is even in the
ball park)
EDIT
Make sure the carbon ball is in the center of the
cap and you have the rotor in there(been there)

I'll check the gap. I just pulled the distributor out of a perfectly running car with an orange box ignition.

Was this car running before... or is this a new
build.. do you have both the run and crank wires
jumped together out of the ignition switch so it
has power during cranking and run

Have you tried to start it by jumpering the starter relay?

Thats a good way to test the ignition switch to
see if both wires are connected together.. since
its in the run position

Switch is good, 12v incomming is good, 12v(thick) red is good. It acts like im not signaling thru the distributor pick up.

spark at the coil?

With the test you did(jumping the box side of the
dist) thats what the test says also... I just went
through this last week.. but when I jumped the box
side it had a spark at the coil lead just 1 time
then nothing.. my coil was shot... after changing
the coil.. it runs better than it ever has

I would just double check that the keyed 12 volts to the MSD stays hot while the engine is cranking...

Only when I jumper the violet and green wires from the box side.

I did, 12v when I'm cranking

I swapped out a blaster ss and tried blaster 2, no luck. I went through the troubleshooting guide that came with it and also their website. I ohmed out the distributor and got .287 on the 2k scale.

Hmmm. Seems like you checked everything. Box is probably done.

Brand new box

Had a brand new MSD box that didn't even make it out of the gate.

So The coil fires when you jump the violet & green wire. That proves your wiring & box are good. Next step is to verify the distributor will trigger the box.
Set-up the same test but leave the distributor violet & green wires connected. Pull the dist cap & rotor. Loosen the distributor hold-down so that you can turn the housing. Then rotate the housing so that the pick-up coil moves across one of the teeth on the trigger wheel. The MSD should fire the coil every time the pick-up moves across the trigger wheel.
If you position the dis pick-up & trigger wheel properly, you might be able to use the distributor advance to move the trigger back & forth across the pick-up. Coil should fire every time you do this.

UPDATE:::::

I swapped in an MSD distributor and it fired right up. My best guess is there is not enough resistance in the factory distributors to trigger the box. Before the swap I ran my meter across the leads and read 525 ohms where the factory one read 287 ohms.

Sounds like the pick up coil in the distributor was bad.
I ran my car for years with an OE distributor and a digital 6 box.

But that distributor worked excellent in my other car. As its back in there and running.

Dont know what to tell you.. I never ran a digital 6
but have run plenty of stock dist with 6al and 7al
boxes.. both lean burn and dist with timing... so I
would think that the digital box doesnt like something
about that dist.. might be the difference in the resistance

Thanks for all the help everyone! 🚗 the old girls is running pretty good. I think my neighbors are already sick of my playing with the 2 step in the driveway.

Dunno man. Stock distributor should run with the digital 6 no problem. But hey, whatever works! Enjoy your ride