HEI Conversion Question

I'm upgrading to a GM HEI distributor. Can I use the coil wire in the original harness to serve as power to the new distributor?

 

No. The original wire is a resistance wire. You'll need a full 12 volts. You can cut the original wire before the resistance wire (close to the firewall) and splice a new wire in, you can disconnect the resistance wire from the harness.and add a new wire with the packard 55 connector, or run a wire from the IGN on the inside of the fuse box. There are other options of course, but I prefer to add the new wire in the stock resistance wire location, the connectors are available

 

Make the new wire bigger too. Most HEI's draw more current. I think I used 12 GA.

 

Larry, love your first sentence!!!

 

Thanks John, that makes sense. Now that I've unwrapped the harness I see the resistance wire, and will replace it with a 10ga wire from the fuse box. I also see the wire branches off, one line to the coil, and one to the starter. Do I need to keep the wire going to the starter as well? What's it purpose?

 

Thanks for the quick response Larry. When you say, "requires full time battery voltage," I assume you don't mean keyed 12v. The distributor calls for keyed 12v, so am I correct that I need to keep the yellow starter wire?

 

Thanks Larry, that makes sense. So am I safe to eliminate the four wires in the harness related to the voltage regulator plug?
The dark blue and black/white run to the alternator. The black/red runs into the junction where it joins several other red wires. The brown runs back to the firewall. I'd think they can all be eliminated, correct?

 

Any reason why I shouldn't eliminate the connector itself and tape off the wire ends? Trying to tidy up were possible.