[. On the resistor wire. I was looking at the diagram. The pink wire looks relatively short and then connects to a yellow wire that goes to the starter. I want to cut my harness open from starter to distributor (just behind that alternator). Is it only the pink wire that creates resistance of is there a resistor wrapped up in the harness? The yellow wire is probably the resistance wire. Use an ohm meter to check, I can't remember what the should be, but an ordinary wire has basically no resistance. If you want to measure voltage instead test between where the pink & yellow wires join & ground, it should about 9.6v. If it is that tells you the yellow is the resistor.
Michel, I made a mistake in my previous post.ou: Neither the yellow or the pink are a resistance wire. There should be an white orange and purple wire running from this connection point to the firewall. It is the resistance wire. My memory is not what it used to be.
Yep, and I believe this wire is ultimately connected to the "on" position of the key-switch on one end and intersects into the pink/red wire from the starter on the other end. From the intersection, the wire continues to the coil. When key is in 'start' position, 12v comes from the starter. When key is 'on', resisted power comes through the white/striped wire.
No stripped wire intersecting with the pink and yellow. I have a cloth wrapped wire instead. I have 13 volts at the pink wire with the key in the on position. OK? Guessed I should have checked before I tore into wiring harness. It's all wrapped up and looking pretty again .
The resistor wire has fuzzy cloth on it at the firewall. Really the best way is to plug into the fuse box in the spare ign slot-it is 12v when key is turned on. Just cut off the very end of one of the nipples coming out of the firewall near the fuse block(engine compartment side) and poke your wire from the outside in. You can run it accross the firewall and tuck it up under the wiring harness along the valve cover and it will be neat and tidy. Cap your resitor wire with a wire splice so if you have to convert to points you can tap into it real easy...it can get tucked under the harness and is hidden...just an idea.
and/or bushings (I had that issue). But with a a pertronix setup there is so little room for error in the bushings or shaft it probably would never run.
Thanks. Looks like maybe I have another issue. LOW vaccum. Tapped into the vacuum advance line. Best I can get is 12 HG. But that is while in park. In Drive with foot on brake drops to 8 HG. Not sure if I am going nuts but I can hear a faint tic a tic a tica coming from my carb. Maybe not enough vaccum to hold the primary needles down and I am hearing them bounce up and down? Also no steadiness in my vaccum reading, the needle is bouncing from 12 to 14.
Hope I have not wiped a cam lobe (again). EDIT: I have 13 volts at the pink with the key in the on position, BUT once the engine is started and running it drops to 9.6 v.I was thinking of running a wire directly from the starter where the yellow is connected up to the petronix unit, I will check that terminal with the engine running to make sure I have 12 volts, if not I will run from the ignition key as suggested earlier. I re gapped my magnetic ring I have .025 - .030 all way round, so I know that is ok. Anyone think that the LOW voltage could cause my mis fire at #1?
Even at the starter terminal the voltage is at 9.6V. I found an orange wire with a plug on it at the fire wall next to the firewall that only gets power when the key is in the on position. I used that. I still have a irregular beat on #1. OK. I looked inside the #1 hole on the distributor cap and it's all carbonned up and has deposits. The other holes were nice and shinny. I replaced with a new cap and changed the rotor. No change. I took out the distributor again after talking to Petronix. They told me to check the polarity on each magnet in the magnetic ring and look for reverse polarity or a missing magnet. All 8 were there. All polarities are identical. running out of racetrack boys!!!
That has to be a big clue there.. I don't know what it means though.. You can see the miss with the timing light right???? In order for the timing light to fire (light up) the plug and wire have to work, and distributor has to send voltage to it.. If you swap that plug and wire with another and still have the problem on the same cylinder I would lean toward a problem with the Pertronix kit since you installed a new cap .. MANY people have had weird problems with the type of unit you have.. I'm no expert by any means though.. I have a Pertronix LOBE SENSING unit and it has worked fine..
I am also leaning towards the petronix unit being defective. I feel I have eliminated all other possibilities.
Easy enough to test... either put the points back in or get a spare dizzy w/points and see what happens.
Tomorrow I will remove the distributor again and I will turn the magnetic ring 180*...If it's the ring my miss should move to another cylinder. Here is a pic of the distributor cap. Black hole is #1. Maybe my engine is possessed.
The magnet ring will only fit it one position, I think- it is not reversible (Make sure you put it on right! It is supposed to be aligned with the square hole on the dist cam..... the magnet ring has a notch in it. Ask me how I know..... it will probably run like crap with the ring in backwards.
I wonder why your ring can be moved 180 degrees and mine can't? I have a Petronix II and if you flip the ring over and look at it (at least on mine), the magnets are in a different position relative to the rotor if you move it 180 degrees. If it wasn't 130 degrees in my attic right now, I 'd go up there and pull my spare out for a picture:laugh:
Did you scrape the inside of that black hole to determine whether there is a metal insert in there? Is that really carbon deposit? Wow. Black = arcing.... does that terminal on the inside of the cap look any different from the others? What did that plug look like? You might try throwing in another plug. Assembly lubes and thread anti-seize can sometimes foul a plug on a fresh engine, and the plug looks perfectly fine. I think it's the Moly in the lube that does it.... just an idea. (I fouled an entire set of plugs on my first ever engine rebuild from assembly lube) I didn't see where you tried another cap yet- do you have one laying around? Trying to think of everything and anything...
1. Have a new distributor cap installed. No change. 2. Tried a different wire. No Change. (am at est 800 ohms resistance on the wire) 3. Yup, that looks like carbon deposit to me. Inside of distributor cap at #1 is fine. 4. Switched #1 & #3 plugs. No change. I have a capacitor on the positive side of my coil. I assume it just serves as a noise suppressor for the radio.
