[DeTomaso] definition of insanity disproven...

[Christopher Kimball]

I replaced my coil today and mounted the MSD box with screws using little springs on either side of the MSD box's mounting holes (kind of like tiny shock absorbers) so the box is isolated from direct vibrations from the car.

If it ever stops raining I'll take her for a test drive.

Sincerely,

Chris

From: MikeLDrew at aol.com
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:17:57 -0500
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] definition of insanity disproven...
To: chrisvkimball at msn.com
CC: detomaso at realbig.com



In a message dated 12/19/10 22 08 5, chrisvkimball at msn.com writes:







1) the MSD box itself is mounted on a surface covered with dynamat.  I discovered in the past that a couple of components needed their metal "body" grounded and the dynamat was only providing a partial ground, so I had to run separate ground wires to each individual compnent's chassis.  I assumed the big black ground wire for the MSD box would be sufficient, do it's metal cover is only touching the metal surface of the dynamat.  If I can get the car to not start again, I am planning to immeditely connect a solid ground to the MSD box's mounting holes to see if that makes the difference.



>>>The MSD box is supposed to be rubber-mounted, on the rubber 'feet' that are included with the box.   Solid-mounting the thing is just doom--as I found out when my Pantera wound up on the back of a tow truck.   I didn't know that the guy who put my car together had neglected to rubber-mount the box, so it shook itself to death internally.



The failure was intermittant--the engine sputtered, ran fine, quit, ran fine, then finally quit.   If your box isn't rubber mounted, then that might be a possible explanation.



And of course, rubber mounting isolates the box from ground.   The big black ground wire is the only ground you want/need.



>2) I have a trickle charger on the battery, and I wonder if the battery is less than a full charge if that might prevent the ignition from summoning enough power for that initial spark.  A slighly drained battery along with cold weather might be the culprit, if there were another weak link in the system.  Since I have been using the trickle charger over the past couple of days, the battery might be charged enough to temporarily overcome the problem.



>>>Trickle charging for just a day would be more than enough to fully charge your battery even if it was stone dead.



Mike