kevin911turbo

After 11 years of ownership on this car it has stopped running. I have done a search on this forum and have checked the obvoius things. Here is what I know.
The CDI box is making the whinning noise with the key in the run position.
There is 12 volts at the number 15 plug into the CDI box.
There is NOT 12 volts on the (A) positive side of the coil.
There is continuity between the 2 ends of the (A) wire. Coil and CDI Plug

I have read about a delay relay but not sure where this is. The CDI box contuies to whine for about 5 seconds after the key is switched off.

The fact that there is 12 v going in and none coming out leads me to belive the box is the culprit. Before I start pouring money on the problem I thought it would be best to get the opinion of the experts on this forum.

Also what should I expect to pay for this part?

Thanks
Kevin R

Mark Houghton

That tells me that your problem isn't with the delay relay. That tells me that the CID may be toast, but I've no experience with testing the stock CDI's.

I believe that for less than the cost of a new stock CDI, an MSD6AL and associated coil would be my suggestion if it turns out your CDI is shot.

rbigwood

Loren at Systems Consulting helped me out when mine went bad. He'll test yours for a nominal fee and rebuild if necessary. Way cheaper than prices for rebuilt units on pelican and excellent customer service.
www.systemsc.com

dt930

A customer's 89 stopped running. Even though the CDI box still made the high pitched whine there was no spark. It ended up being the box.

JFairman

You're not going to get 12 volts at the coil with CDI, it will be a quick pulse of somewhere around 450 volts to the positive primary lead on the coil and you won't be able to read that with a voltmeter.

Lay a spark plug on it's side contacting the intake manifold or something grounded and have somone crank over the motor while you look at the plug. Use something thats not going to conduct current and possibly shock you to hold it the metal base in place to make sure it's grounded.
If it's grounded and there's no visable spark it's probably the ignition coil, CDI, or green coax wire going from the distributor to a female spade terminal in the 6 pin plug at the bottom of the CDI.

If the CDI is toast I'd change over to an MSD unit and MSD high vibration blaster coil that is newer design and better quality than the extremely unreliable bosch coils made in Brazil these days (that you only rent) and about half the cost.

Not only is MSD better, you can get a new MSD 6AL CDI in almost every auto parts store across the nation if you need to replace one while traveling.

Benny771

Any problems with the car before this? eg. my CDI box went but when it cooled down it would go for a hour or so then die again.. did this 3x then ka-poot.