Dino won't start...need suggestions

Agreed. Points are unreliable and not worth the hassle. All of my cars have had the points removed and it is impossible to tell that it has been done. Reliability is 100% and there is no adjusting ever. In very short order the conversion will pay for itself.

 

I finally got around to working to get my Dino started again. I had replaced the coil a while back with an MSD Blaster-2 coil (no fix), and then replaced the old MSD 6400 and Rev Limiter boxes with a new MSD 6AL digital ignition box. It still didn't get the car running until today when I discovered a bad ignition wire connection to the MSD box. Once I made a solid connection, my Dino fired up and kept on running (boy did I miss that melodious sound!).

The only thing that troubles me is that the tach is no longer `jumpy' like it used to be. It fact, it seems down right sluggish when I manipulate the throttle.

Any idea why the change in tach behavior between (old...early 90's) MSD 6400 and (new) MSD 6AL Digitial ignition box? Suggestions?

Unfortunately, I got her running a couple hours after Alberto and the FOG (Ferrari Owners Group) left the nearby Ritz Carlton for their scheduled drive, which by the way consisted of about 45 Ferrari's! It would've been fun to join them as the only Dino if I had only worked to fix my Dino last weekend.

 

I want a ride!
Fix it, you have a few days....Great meeting you Ron.

Regards, Alberto

 

HMB, Congrats! I am glad you found the problem. I do not know about the tac issues but I do know that it is linked into the ignitions system somehow. Best of luck troubleshooting, let us know what you find out. I need to work on my ignition system/coil at some point., actually looking to do a Dinoplex replica replacement.

 

Alberto, I have you to thank. Before realizing I had a chance to meet you at the FOG event, I planned to depart for Monterey early, early this morning. After leaving you and the FOG group, I decided to delay my Monterey trip to next weekend so I'd have a full two days there. Then after seeing all those Ferrari's, I figured I'd try one more time to get Dino running. Now I'm even more happy to have met you today!

 

Is your tach currently wired to the points (MSD white wire) or to the MSD's tach output?

 

Wired identical to what it was before. The wiring definitions are the same for the old and new MSD boxes;
- MSD gray goes to Dino brown (tach)
- MSD white goes to Dino blue (distributor)
- MSD thin red + MSD thick red goes to Dino yellow (+12v)
- MSD thick black goes to chassis ground (in trunk)
- MSD bundled orange + black go to coil terminals

- MSD magnetic pickup connection not used since car still uses original factory points distributor

 

Ok, the MSD/tach wiring is correct. As a test, could you wire the brown wire to the points/MSD white wire connection instead of the MSD's grey wire? With this wiring, does the tach show the same symptoms?

P.s. would recommend to connect the thick red wire directly to battery '+' to make sure the MSD gets enough power. The most convenient point is the battery side (the right wire as seen from the back, going to front to car) of the large alternator fuse in the black box on the firewall.

 

Just an FYI, but this is an early M-series, so there's no alternator fuse box. Rather there's just a junction box.

So if I disconnect Gray->Brown and connect White->Brown, that means distributor points will no longer have a connection from ignition source...how would car run to see affect on tach? Forgive my ignition ignorance.
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Don't disconnect white, wire the brown tach wire to the existing points/white connection

 

Oh, so in your test, the MSD white (points) wire would drive the Dino Blue points AND Dino Brown tach lines.

 

Yes, the points (blue) trigger the ignition (white) and the tach (brown), as in the original setup.