Earlier, i had some HEI conversion issues about the exact thing I am going to describe. It turned out that the ignition coil was damaged within the HEI. Now, everything is ran to spec that i know of and still have no idea what the following wire is for....... I asked prior when sorting out the ignition part, and learned the brown/white wire connected to brown wire was the res. wire within the panel attached to the start position, yet originally i thought it was a white braided wire connected to the on position with pink. noone has been ale to inform me what that is and have truly been through every part of the manual and manuals of other models. The only thing I can find is from another post stating it was the res. wire. I have an idea that it may e to the power antenna, and getting ready to find out. Anyone that could help me, please! This is driving me mad, lol! Chaunce
The Brown/White wire (near number 5 on Bulkhead Connector) on the right lower side of the above diagram is the resistance wire. It connects to the pink wire in the engine compartment that leads to the coil +. The yellow wire from starter solenoid bypasses the resistance wire DURING CRANKING ONLY. This supplies full battery voltage to the coil for a quicker start. Once the engine is running, the resistance wire drops the voltage supplied to the pink wire for points longevity. You have two choices, either replace the Brown/White wire end to end, OR, run a new wire that has full battery voltage during CRANK and RUN.
Tom Telesco described using an automotive relay to run a new wire to the HEI. The resistance wire is used to trigger the relay. Coil positive is the Main power connection on the HEI cap. 12 volts would be any wire with full battery voltage.
Thanks guys, i appreciate it and i understand what you are saying, but isnt in response to my question. I apologize if not clear, just wanted to know if anyone knew what the white braided wire could be from attached to run at the ignition switch. Thanks
It is very hard to follow the Factory Service Manual diagrams. Looking closely, there are 2 resistance wires. One is 1.8 ohms for the ignition system, the other is 10 ohms, and I am unclear as to which is which. The Brown/White wire is labelled 10 ohms in the main wiring diagram. The braided wire maybe in fact the ignition resistance wire. I sure wish some of the guys more familiar with the earlier cars would weigh in here.
Larry I think that 10 Ohm resistance wire is for the Cruise Control . I ran across that in my 69 Electra years ago .
I know the resistance wire in the later cars has a white braided sheath, so the OP may be onto something. The Brown/White looks to be 10 ohms.
The wire I see in the Main Wiring diagram is labelled 20 WORCT (look at the bottom of the diagram) It comes off the bottom terminal of the ignition switch with the pink wire. It looks Purple/Orange.
Thank you so much for helping me I'm trying to find out what this is. Yeah that's what I ran across as well and there is no wire with purple orange striping , so thought it could possibly be just a replacement but it had to be a very very old replacement due to the looks of the wire and considering you know it's of the era. It definitely wasn't the antenna and that was just a loose connection that I fixed so I'm going to trace it back to see where all it goes but it seems though go to the firewall but see no trace of it on the other side in the engine compartment. I've yet to still work on the cruise control so I don't know it may be
No, on the engine side of the firewall, the wire is pink, and that goes to the positive side of the coil. That should be your connection to the HEI.
Okay someone posted on another thread on the team Buick site. They indicated that there are two resistance wires terminating at the ignition switch One is the coil terminal and the other is for the generator lamp. I didn't think about it but as he stated over the last 50 years it could have faded and turned up white with no other colors so that's where it got me. Again thank you guys so much
And I remove the brown and white wire way earlier when you say that was resistance wire so I should definitely put it back on I'm sure correct. With all that I should have everything else hooked up right
