Starting issue

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by davids2toys

Pat, I am only 12 weeks post op from back surgery/fusion. I would rather be safe than sorry. I am still pretty stiff and sore.

The beauty of the MSD box and the ERA wiring harness is that you can check voltage/continuity without always having to crawl under the dash or under the car to get to the spot that you think needs testing -- which pretty much sucks when your back hurts. For example, you can check your ignition switch, for the most part, over at your starter solenoid (which is really easy to reach), because of the way ERA wires in the little red and orange trigger and tach wires. When the MSD box is over the passenger's feet, you would think that the little red and orange trigger/tach wires would just run two feet directly over to the ignition switch and tach, but it usually doesn't. It goes out through the firewall, around the block, and up to the wiring harness by the distributor. This is because the harness also has to support "legacy" ignitions that feed 12v+ to the coil. The ballast resistor connections along that line are just fused together, but you still have the offshoot of that connection heading off to the starter solenoid. The long and the short of that means three things: 1) You can hotwire and start up an ERA/MSD car with a two inch piece of wire and an aluminum foil gum wrapper; 2) a misbehaving starter solenoid can actually keep your car running even when you remove the key from the ignition; and, more importantly, 3) You can check the continuity and function of your MSD ignition system without having to bend your back much at all. I'll lead you through it when you're ready, but it's really, really, really easy to do.