I was tuning up the Elky Friday and had it running pretty good. Saturday morning it started hard so I was going to recheck my Friday work and it would start and run for about 30 seconds and shutdown. Now it will not start at all.

I am getting fuel and 11.92 volts at the distributor power lead. We tested for spark using a timing light and then by a spark plug grounded to the engine. Nothing!

I have upgraded the stock distributor body with a MSD 8501 kit from Summit Racing not three weeks ago.

The parts included in the kit were:

MSD 83645 Digital HEI Module w/ TCD
MSD 8225 HEI Coil
MSD 84101 Rotor
MSD 84111 Extreme HEI Cap

I added MSD 31409 8.5mm plug wires to Bosch platinum and now R35T5 for AC Delco gapped at 0.035 inches.

What procedure should I use to isolate the problem component?

... but I decided to try a few things. I took out the new MSD HEI module and put back in the stock module. I will attempt to start the Elky up later this morning when my wife has her first cup of coffee.

If that is'nt it, I'll put in the stock coil and see if it fires. And so on, one piece at a time until it runs and the last part replaced is most likey the culprit.

The wife is up and had two cups of coffee and I let her hop in and key the Elky up. It started right up with the stock HEI module in it and is running like a champ. :-D Timing is rock solid and vacuum is steady.

So it would seem that the MSD 83645 Digital HEI module is kaput! :cry:

Should I just send it back for a replacement or pop the stock module and try the new one again? Should I try another brand? Does anyone know how to test these things?

Call them up and tell them what happened. They wil usually send you a new part. Just some extra info... that particular part is only really effective when useing the MSD HEI Coil in conjuction with it. That is when you start producing a hotter spark and get some larger horsepower gains. It should also raise your RPM range as well (if I remember correctly, don't quote me, it can raise the RPM range up to 10,000).

ShadowHawk, you remember correctly. It has a variable limiter Pot from 5 to 10K RPM. I do have the entire MSD upgrade in the car.

Summit Racing has aleady sent me the return form and I will ship it out to them tomorrow and await replacement. I'll shelve that stock module for situations such as this.

I am really upset over this MSD 83465 HEI module business! :mad:

I got the new unit in and we put it in this morning. The Elky cranked right up and then just up and died 30 seconds later. NO SPARK! Tested with a timing light and a plug shorted to the block. NO SPARK. So, we put in the stock HEI module and she fired right up and ran great.

MSD said it might be a bad coil that toasting the module but why does the stock module not get toasted? They want me to send the coil and module back to them for testing. I hate it when things don't work right.

Any thoughts?

I put the new HEI module and coil RMAed from MSD back in today. We'll be firing it up tomorrow sometime to see what happens. I was meticulous in checking and rechecking all grounds and ground link (especially under the dust cover). All read dead short! :-D