resistance wire

[Anonymous]

I think I've figured out what I need to do to correctly hook up my Pertronix II. Out of my ignition switch comes a red wire (with green stripe) and a black wire (also with green stripe) that join at one male bullet connector. From there, a single, larger pink wire goes to the firewall connector. This is the resistance wire, is it not? (It has the same textured "jacket" as the wire going to the coil.)

I just need to make sure I understand all of this correctly before I go and do something I'll regret:

If this is the resistance wire, I would need to get some 18 ga. wire and a female bullet connector. Remove the pink wire (cutting at firewall harness) and also remove the wire going to the coil from the harness. Drill a hole in the firewall, install grommet, and feed new wire from ignition switch through and connect directly to the coil at the + side. This would be my 12V source, correct? Then, install Pertronix red wire to the + and black to the - side.

Please let me know if this is right or wrong.

 

[CobraSix]

Sounds right.

You could also look for some other switched source in the engine compartment. I can't think of any off hand because my car has no accesories until the hood.

Slade

 

[Anonymous]

Great! Took me forever to figure that out! As you can tell, electronics aren't my specialty!

But, is the 18 ga. wire sufficient for this?

 

[addo]

Hopefully I'm not giving you a bum steer.

At least in Oz, the resistive part was only a fraction of the length. You should be able to trace it back to the point where it joins the regular wire; the colour may change. We used a Stewart Warner dash, too, and the resistive part hooked separately to the rear of the instrument cluster for cooling.

On some harnesses, this change point was just inside the end of the tape; you had to peel it back a little. If this is unlike yours, you could still try removing and replacing the existing wire - this would negate the need for drilling/grommets in the firewall.

I like to soft solder and heatshrink my connectors - crimping is a last resort. For authenticity, you could buy pink wire from an auto electrical shop (often cheaper by the length than at parts stores).

It is harder to reassemble an engine well, than fix wiring. When you see a wiring harness laid out on the ground, all the fear and loathing goes for good.

Regards, Adam.