ok, so the previous owner of my car swapped out the original distributor with an HEI. upon examining the wiring, it looks like he used the same pink wire from the old dist connection, and just got rid of the yellow wire and it gets 12v with the ignition switched on...

now someone on this board mentioned the other day that the pink wire only kicks out 6 or 7v, is that ture? then how would that explain the fact that i am getting twelve?

the reason i'm asking, is that i bought a new engine harness, but it has the old dist connector on it, and i want to wire it up like it is currently... can i use the pink wire? on the wire it says "rsistance cable do not cut"... what do you think?

if he deleted the resistor(or went around it) then it would put out 12V

where is the resistor located, so i can remove it from the new harness? it doesn't look like the guy cut into any part of the harness that was orignally hidden by the tape...

You should take and either go directly to a switched 12v source on the key or run a relay and use the old ignition power wire to kick the relay on. Wire the ignition directly to the relay so it gets a full 12 volts. That's exactly how I did mine. I did it the same way when I ran an MSD box. The remote power on source was the old wire.

In my experience the wire itself was the resistor. You would need to remove the wire and replace it with regular wire.
I had redone the engine wiring harness in my '73 pickup and I found that all the other wires could be soldered, but the resistor wire to the distributor could not be soldered. Unfortunately I don't remember how I connected the new wire up.

yeah, by the print on the wire, i figured it was the wire itself, that's why it baffles me how the other guy did it with the pink wire... maybe he just put a new pink wire in there...

73454, i like the relay idea, however, i have never wired up a relay, except for one that came with my starter cutoff, which already had leads connected to it... one blue (switch), one red (12v), two green which you splice into the starter purple wire to complete the circuit... can i just mimic this setup for the ignition? or if you could tell me simply which terminals to hook what up to... and where to get the relay... that would be great

THANKS!

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by GetMore:
In my experience the wire itself was the resistor. You would need to remove the wire and replace it with regular wire.
I had redone the engine wiring harness in my '73 pickup and I found that all the other wires could be soldered, but the resistor wire to the distributor could not be soldered. Unfortunately I don't remember how I connected the new wire up.</font>

In a 70 C-10 I found the wire was a larger gauge before it went thru the firewall. Then it dropped to a smaller gage on the engine compartment side. I just crimped a new wire on the interior side and ran it to the hei. Worked like a million bucks. I expect chevy did the same thing on other vehicles...

OK, so it looks like i will be able to use the pink wire after all... i plugged the new harness in, snipped the yellow wire that was attached to the pink wire, turned on the ignition switch, and i get 12V... maybe the wire only acts as a resistor when connected to the yellow wire, which connects to the starter?

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by RS_SS350:
OK, so it looks like i will be able to use the pink wire after all... i plugged the new harness in, snipped the yellow wire that was attached to the pink wire, turned on the ignition switch, and i get 12V... maybe the wire only acts as a resistor when connected to the yellow wire, which connects to the starter?</font>

You need to bypass the entire wire. Use that diagram I made in the other post about fans to see how a relay works. You can get them at any autoparts house for about $5.00 each. Wire one side of the relay's coil to ground, the other to the original wire, then plug the common terminal into +12V, and the N.O. terminal to the power terminal on the HEI. When you turn on the ignition it will click the relay on and power up your HEI.

ok, let me see if i get it... connect one end of coil to ground, simple enough, one end to the pink wire (how do i know what terminals are the coil? is it written on the relay?) now the pink wire is acting as the switch, so when power goes through there, it turns on the relay which starts gets the juice directly from the 12v power source (not an ignition switched 12v, just straight from the battery, correct?)

thanks for all your help with this, i feel like i'm learning a whole lot...

If you turn the relay over, the pinout is as follows:

85 = + to relay coil (or vice-versa)
86 = - to relay coil (or vice-versa)
30 = Common
87a = Normally closed (N.C.)
87 = Normally open (N.O.)

http://shop.willyselectronics.com/browse.cfm/4,6846.htm

85 and 86 don't matter which way they are connected as long as one side is positive and one side is negative. It will cause the relay to work because it is DC voltage.

Great Info! thanks!

when i switched to HEI i didnt mess with any wiring, just had to change some ends of the wires, but that was it. mine works, not sure if iam getting 12 volts, but it works.

Just trace the +12V coil wire to the fuse box, remove it, use the existing spade type connector to crimp a new 12-gauge wire and run it back to the dist. cap. Neither wires on the coil will need to be used. -Jabin

------------------
Gmachinz Sales and Performance
"...updating the level of performance..."

how would you get the original spade connector out of the harness connector?

It looks tricky but it's not. You need to remove the outside fuse box junction, and once you isolate the spade that contains the wire, use a real skinny scratch awl and slide it inside the top of the spade connector and pull the wire out from the opposite side. It's a standard GM spade-lock type connector-you'll recognize it once you've pulled it out. This just makes for a cleaner appearance. -Jabin

------------------
Gmachinz Sales and Performance
"...updating the level of performance..."