MSD 6 BTM wiring

[HB280ZT]

Hi All,

 

Well I did a search but did not find what I was looking for so here I am. Here is some information first:

 

1977 280Z with an 82 turbo motor and tranny. However the idiot that put the motor in did not use the 82 ECU and wiring harness. So now I have the 77 N/A ECU running the turbo motor with the help of a MSD 6BTM.

 

Well I am in the process of installing the 82 turbo ECU, harness and distributor and I am not sure how to wire the MSD unit into the 82 system, no way to pick up a trigger from the 82 distributor that I know of??.

 

So for all of you with turbo motors in 280 how did you wire in the MSD units???

 

Thanks for your help.

 

HB280ZT

[getZ]

I have an 81 with msd 6AL, but the hookup should be similar. The white wire of the msd is the trigger signal and it needs a grounding signal.

 

The computer uses the input from either the distributor in the case of the 82-83 or the crank position sensor like in the 81. In either case those signals are used by the computer to interpret engine speed, from there it sends an output signal (yellow and white wire, also see:

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=99620)

to the ignitor.

 

The ignitor is used like a relay. It recieves the compter pulses and connects the blue wire (on the ignitor) to ground at every pulse. Picture the two inputs to the ignitor as being like a "T". One is a horizonal plug the other is a vertical plug. The vertical plug is the input of the ignitor.

 

I hope you ignitor is good, mines was bad. I found an easy to test the ignitor. You need a voltmeter, an AA battery and some wire.

 

Hook the meter to measure continuity accross the blue wire of the ignitor and the mounting body (the body/housing is used as ground) Making sure you have a good connection on the body since it is plastic coated sometimes. Now hook the battery (plus side) to the vertical bar of the "T" and body. If its working correctly the meter will read close to zero every time the battery is connected.

[HB280ZT]

GetZ,

 

Well I tried you test and my ignitor reads about 230K with the blue wire checked to groud and when I add the battery it drops to 35K which to me is not very close to Zero. So is my ignitor bad?? Or am I just doing this test wrong!!

 

Thanks

 

HB280ZT

[getZ]

35K Ohms is very high for what the device is supposed to doing. It is supposed to be pulling that signal down to ground. A resistance that high probably won't allow the MSD to trigger.

 

Does grounding the white wire of the MSD give you an arc? I use the wire from the coil to the distributor, disconnect the distributor and go directly to an extra spark plug (make sure the outside of the plug touches a good ground)

[getZ]

I was thinking about that somemore. It's kind of an odd way your transistor failed. I suppose anything is possible, but I'm used to seeing them die where they don't work at all anymore.

 

One more thing, this might be obvious but does your meter measure 0 ohms or a short when you connect the leads together. Also did you get a good ground on the ignitor body?

[HB280ZT]

GetZ,

 

I was in the process of adding the 82 harness and other parts to my 77 280Z with the 82 turbo motor. I just did the check you talked about and found that my ignitors where bad. I also asked about how to hook up my MSD unit to the 82 turbo harness. However at this time I have run out of time to play with this setup. So I am in the process of swapping back to the 77 harness and ECU. I will check all of my parts and try again when I have about 1 month to play with it. Also I would like to do an end to end wiring check to make sure I do not have a bad wire. I will post what I did later and maybe someone can tell me if I missed something.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

HB280ZT

[HB280ZT]

Hi All,

 

Well I posted a reply in the "82 ECU/wiring harness install in 1977 280Z" post.

 

Here is a link to my other post:

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=103683

 

HB280ZT