I went to start my "new" Pantera last week and while it would crank, there was no spark at the plugs.
The car has a relatively new MSD 8350 Ready-to-run distributor and a Blaster 2 coil. There is no ignition box or external module. It has new plugs, new gas, and produced enough fuel to soak the non-igniting plugs. I was stumped. I read dozens of posts about all the possible weird things that this could be caused by so I prepared for a long haul investigation.
I am NOT an electrical whiz by any stretch so I did what I thought was a sensible basic test of things:
1) I checked to see if when the key is "on" in the "run" position that I do have 12V power to the + side of the coil. YES.
2) I checked the resistance of the coil. Between the + terminal and spark tower was less than 1 ohm and between – and the spark tower was 4,700 ohms. These seemed close to MSD specs for the Blaster 2. COIL LIKELY OK
3) I inserted a plug into the coil spark lead (to distributor) wire, grounded the body of the plug and ran a hot 12V lead to the + side of the coil to see if it generated a spark. YES, COIL ALMOST CERTAINLY OK.
4) I noticed the wire connectors from the distributor to the coil were not ideal (they would pull apart with ease) so I cut them out and replaced them with new connectors that snap tight and stay put. CONNECTIONS GOOD
5) Having read that bypassing the ignition switch might eliminate that as being the problem, I ran a 12V hot wire from the battery side of the starter solenoid (drivers-side terminal) directly to the coil and tried to start the car again. NO LUCK.
6) I called MSD to confirm my testing on the coil (they said it sounded good) and confirmed there being 12V power to the coil and then asked if I was missing anything. They said that everything sounded correct and perhaps the module inside my 8350 Ready-to-run distributor was toast. They issued an RMA for my out-of warranty repair.
7) Getting frustrated at the thought of yet another week or two of no running car, and following my long-trusted practice of burning money (usually with an accelerant) to solve problems I can't understand, I ordered a brand new MSD 8350 Distributor AND a new MSD Blaster 2 coil. They arrived in a couple of days and then I carefully marked the positions of everything, followed the MSD Distributor install instructions to install the NEW distributor, swapped over the plug wires one-by-one, changed the coil over to the NEW coil and hopped in the drivers seat and cranked the key, ready to hear the rumble. NO SPARK. Cranked over fine, but still no spark. (Insert lots of swearing here)
It was pretty late at night, I was really cold and even more pissed off so I called it a night.
This morning I spoke with my friend David in Montreal who said "put it on your trailer and bring it here. We'll get Luc (our resident electrical magician) to figure out what's wrong". I was out running errands when fellow Mangusta owner Denis called and said "why don't I come over and see if I can give you a hand this afternoon?" Since getting the car to Montreal is a lot of work, I decided I'd go at it again for the day and see if I could figure out what was wrong.
Denis arrived mid-afternoon, just as I returned from my errands. We went through the same tests again and STILL no spark. Grrrr. We double checked we had power and that the wires were connected correctly to the coil, and then from inside the car Denis said "what's this connector for?". !!!!! Click!!!!! Somehow in my angered sleepy state (and in my rush to success) last night I had forgotten to connect the two halves of the new MSD Distributor harness (distributor to coil connector). DUH! Key in, turn, ignition and then that Cleveland Philharmonic Symphony I was so longing to hear finally roared to life.
Thanks to my friends for their help and support — and to Denis for his clear, methodical double-checking.
Now all I need is for the rain to stop!
Mark
Just to clarify: The original MSD module in the old MSD 8350 was blown. The reason the new MSD 8350 unit didn't work right away was that I forgot to plug in its connector after installing it.
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