HEI upgrade question

Discussion in 'Sparky's corner' started by jaye, Dec 29, 2017.

  1. jaye

    jaye Well-Known Member

    1969 Skylark 350/4; what if any issues will I have if I hooked up the yellow wire on the starter as stated in the service manual, and upgraded to an HEI distributor. I've read somewhere if you are running HEI the yellow starter wire is not needed.
    Thanks in advance
    Jaye
    Also what are the symptoms of a bad ignition switch (the one on the steering column)
     
  2. 12lives

    12lives Control the controllable, let the rest go

    The yellow wire bypasses the resistor wire going to a points distributor to give 12v when cranking, making it easier to start the engine. HEIs use 12v all the time so you will not need it with an HEI. See larry's post in http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/hei-in-a-72-455.328587/#post-2752146 for lots more info!

    What symptoms are you having? That will give us a quicker way to respond to your question.
     
  3. jaye

    jaye Well-Known Member

    This may not have anything to do with my current issue; I installed the yellow wire about 500 miles ago, a few weeks ago the car stopped firing, I replaced the ignition module and it fired right up; about 30 miles later car stopped firing again, replaced ignition module and still not firing also changed dist, cap & coil still same issue. Now I'm thinking its the distributor which is was new at the beginning of the 500 miles mentioned before. I was just wondering if the yellow wire being connected would have caused any of this , however, it seems like if it did it would have started before now.
     
  4. steve covington

    steve covington Well-Known Member

    Did you put a good coating of dielectric grease on/ under the module? Failure to do that will COOK the module; figuratively and literally...
     
  5. 12lives

    12lives Control the controllable, let the rest go

    Do you have spark and fuel? When the throttle is pushed you should get a good squirt ont of the accel pump. If no spark, do you have 12v at the dist when in start and run position? Throwing parts at it is not helpful to solving the problem...

    Sounds like the HEI is installed. If so, the yellow wire will not matter. Is it a GM unit? HEI's should lst 1000's of miles and many years, 500 is nothing. Something is wrong somewhere!
     
  6. LARRY70GS

    LARRY70GS a.k.a. "THE WIZARD" Staff Member

    Take the cap off and move the wires that go from the module to the magnetic pick up, just move them around. Put the cap back on and see if the engine fires. Do this several times if necessary. If the engine starts, the problem is the magnetic pick up wires. They flex with operation of the vacuum advance and can develop an intermittent open condition. Seen this with several HEI distributors including one of mine years ago. The solution is to replace the pick up, also called a pole piece or pick up coil in some catalogs.

    http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4309017&cc=1016446&jsn=411
     

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