Ran into my first ignition snag with the KG

DorianL

DorianL

solid fixture here in the forum
Staff member
Hey Folks,

I did manage to get the engine of the KG running this Sunday. It took most of the day, but we were taking it easy - having a BBQ at the same time and dodging some rain showers. This was supposed to be a celebratory event.

In the evening, I scooted the car around the driveway a little bit and I must say… the engine is VERY nice and well-rounded!

Anyway - I tried firing up the flat-four with the MSD 6AL-2 programmable and: nyet!

I check everything and went through the trouble shooting procedure and found nothing until the final test: tapping together the MSD ignition wires (simulating the closing magnetic circuit.) When you do that, the MSD box's LED is supposed to blink… which it did. However it NEVER blinked with the distributor's magnetic pickup. (even when I switched polarity)

I hooked up a DMM to the distributor and, according to MSD, I was supposed to find: .500 I'm reading 1. with no variance as I spin the distributor. Note, I am not sure I am reading this correctly. (Does the turnover speed influence the quality of the signal?)

Here's the odd bit, when I tossed out the MSD, it fired up immediately. Stranger still: the engine builder test ran the engine with his MSD6 box!
 
'wish I would have found this yesterday… before I tossed the MSD and before the BBQ ;-)

I won't be able to test it for another few days as I am off to Germany to once again teach boy scouts rifle shooting and archery. Only a week this time...
 

Congratulations on getting it started the first time!!!

I'm sure with a little more time you will figure it out. Maybe call the engine builder
and ask what they did, since they used the MSD also.

 
YUp - I got a confirmation from the supplier… that is the way to wire it properly. I researched MSD wiring. I would have saved a lot of time if I had searched Pertronix

And again, It'll take me two weeks before I can rewire this and test again.
 
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YOUR NOT ALONE! we ALL learn eventually that reading the directions very carefully saves a great deal of wasted time, unfortunately for most of us it takes dozens of exposures to the failures to read thru those directions for it to begin to dawn on us that theres some vauge relationship between not reading the directions and making a few phone calls to the tech desk guys and wanting to beat your head on the wall or throw wrenches across the shop, while thinking up new cuss words

Toll Free MSD Tech Line: 888-673-7859

MSD Tech Line: 915-855-7123

Call our tech line Monday through Friday, 7am to 5pm Mountain Standard Time

RELATED INFO
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4505&p=11892&hilit=tech+help+phone#p11892
 
That was indeed the problem - works smoothly now.

This engine is torquey. Since the car is so light, it's fun to drive. Dunno if it can do a burnout… but it is zippy.
 
It would Be Hell of a Pain in The Ass to snap the input shaft on the Transaxle on the KG.
Dumping Clutch at 5,000- 7,000 RPM A Bad idea.
 
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