It finally happened to me...
 

Yesterday was beautiful (albiet a little windy) but wife and I took the Cobra out for a little cruise and hit happy hour at Los Cabos for a couple margarita's and light dinner. Then the plan was to head over to the Brookside area for some "sight seeing" and coffee.

Cobra was running great with 15 gals of 111 race fuel I had bought earlier in the day. The band was slow setting up at Los Cabos so we decided to cruise over to Riverparks about 20 miles away and and then to Brookside. As we were rolling through the gears on the winding Riverside Drive it happened. The engine went quiet, only wind was making any sound. So we pulled over to the side of the shoulder (coincedently right next to the new Alzheimer center). Didn't want to stray to far from the car because they may want to find us a room :).

After checking a few things I found there was no fire so I determined the coil or the MSD box had quit on us. The MSD box was extremely hot (more than usual). So I called the eventually faithful AAA for a roll back 1 hr wait turned into two hours and the storm clouds were rolling into view. Our rescue driver said he had been looking for us at 51st instead of 71st and Riverside Drive. No big deal, nice evening and we were getting use to people driving by and honking, waving, etc. Even a few people had stopped to look at the Cobra or offer assistance (mostly young girls). Quickly we got the Cobra loaded on the roll back and away we went to our house (still dry by the way)only 40 minutes away. We got the Cobra home and unloaded and in the garage and when we turned on the news only to find a huge storm just hitting downtown with winds of 60 mph and Mayfest was being cancelled for the evening. Boy did we dodge a bullit! All is well but don't get me wrong because my Cobra has been towed at the race track a couple times for a broken drive shaft at Road America or running out of gas (was that embarassing or what) at Hallett but never in town.

I hope to have everything working tonight if all goes well. I guess over 9 years on a piece of electrical equipment is pretty good. I am just glad it didn't happen at the track in a few weeks during the Shelby meet.

Live is good even when things go wrong!


Clois Harlan

Sounds like you had some good luck with your bad luck.

It can be amazing at times how a problem can turn into a blessing in
disguise. That one sounds like it was worth a few "Thank You's".:)

+1 on what Flip said!

you must be living right!

somebody had a brand new 6al for sale not too long ago, either here or the ff forum for $150.

I agree Clois....Life is good.

Man, I thought I left this daily Rain back in South Florida.

Marty.

Sharing the adventure with the missus, no less.

Hope it's not too involved or expensive.

When I went to Texas in late March for the TCC Spring Fling I had every
intention of taking my wife with me in the Kirkham to it. We woke up Friday
am to a rain storm and waited it out. It was way too cloudy to take it when
I left the house late about 1 pm and decided, in a burst of wisdom, to forgo
the Kirkham and take my rental car, a Toyota Corolla. 30 miles out from the
house the clouds dumped on us for 1/2 hour. Of course it was beautiful when
we got there but we were dry! My primary objective was to meet people
there and I was successful with that and had a great time. I think had we
gotten caught in the down pour that may have killed future road trips so at
least that venue is still open.:) I sure was tempted though!

Hey, Clois, glad you "dodged" the bullet. Sometimes good things happen for bad reasons.

As to your car dying, my alter ego, Al Z. Heimer, bumped the key into the off position once when driving and didn't realize it until he went to turn the car off. More than slightly embarassing with a passenger. **)

Well after taking care of some honey do's I finally got a chance to look at the Cobra and the first thing I noticed was my distributor cap was completely corrodided with a green chalk. Immediately went to NAPA to get a new distributor cap (MSD cap is the same as an old style GM) but that didn't solve the problem. I borrowed Mat Twiehaus' coil and tried that but not the problem. So I am pretty convienced the MSD 6AL has gone bad. I will take the time to look up the test to see if the box is truely bad. My speed shops here didn't have a 6 AL in stock so I will probably just order one from Summit.

Just a quick question: Should your positive wire on your coil be "hot" when you turn on your key or does it not get it's charge once the car is started?


Clois

Clois, the pos coil wire should be hot whenever ignition key is at the "IGN" or sometimes known as the "RUN" position..... and of course when starting. Some key switches have the "acc" position as well, and it does not have to be hot on that one. Typically, the first click of the key is ACC, next is IGN which basically turns on the coil wire, and next is START. Turn your key until one more click starts the car and check to see if you get 12v to the pos coil wire. If not then that is for sure why it died.

Actually Flip and Pete a few more than a couple thank you's! Still down until I can get my Summit order next week. No hurry I have other "assigned" duties that go with the spring time plus I am restoring an old Schwinn bicycle for my wife. She hates the posture of a road or mountain bike, plus she doesn't like the gears. We will see how much she hates those gears the next time she starts peddling up a hill on her 1963 Schwinn Typhoon.

Clois

Unplug the 6AL from the dizzy and jumper the purple and green wires coming from the 6AL unit. Then remove the coil wire from the dizzy cap and get it near a ground. Crank the engine. If the coil wire sparks over to ground, the 6AL is firing. If not, its dead, assuming the rest of your wiring is correct.

MSD problem???
 

Clois,
Check the magnetic contacts (like points) inside the distributor. I have had to replace twice. Summit has the part.
TL :MECOOL:

Terry I have had with mine too. Thanks for reminding me.

Elmar,

no spark on the purple green test either.

Well, it is probably the MSD then. I just tried to call you but it went to voice mail. I was just curious what you had discovered.

That's MSD's definitive test process for the box. Sounds like you found the culprit. BTW, if you do need to replace that magnetic pickup inside the MSD 8594 distributor, OReilly's stocks them for $25.99, much cheaper than paying Summit shipping and handling fees. MSD part # 84661.

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't even check with O'Reilly for the MSD Box.

Clois