Kind of a stupid question I know, but Ive got the flame thrower coil and Im not sure if my 66 skylark uses a resistor wire, or if there is a physical resistor in the system that I have to remove. And if so, where is the resistor. Thanks.
The wire itself is (usually) a resistor wire. Pink I think is the color. You need to replace it with a regular piece of wire running from the firewall bulkhead connector to the coil. Here's a test: Disconnect the wire from the coil, turn ignition to run and check the voltage at that wire. It should be lower than the battery volts. More like 9-10 volts.. or something like that. Anyway, you need to replace the wire from the firewall connector to the coil with a piece of regular wire to get full battery voltage.
Thanks a lot, its definitely a pink wire. One more question, where is that bulkhead located? I tried tracing the wire, but the entire harness is wrapped in tape and once it enters, I cannot tell which direction it is traveling. So, if its going one way through the harness, it would be traveling through the harness and heading towards the starter. If it goes the other way, it travels through the harness around the back of the engine towards the driver side of the car. I looked around here and two pink wires exit the harness. One pink wire exits the harness and attaches to a switch on the throttle linkage so Ive ruled that out. The other pink wire that exits from the same general location on the driver side attaches to a small box on the driver side fenderwell which two other wires are attached to through a different connector. One is white and I beleive the other is yellow. My thinking is that this wire travels towards the starter. I need to get a friggin multimeter that works so I can check continuity(or borrow one for now). If you could point me in the general direction as to where this wire ends up on the firewall, I would be greatly appreciated. As you can see, I never was much for electrical work hehe but once I know where Im goin(always takes lots of questions) Ill fix it right.
Hi Greg: I just went through this with my 72 455, I switched to an HEI and tried using the origanal pink wire (positive or BATT wire). The engine fired up but my tach would not work right. The original wiring harness with the resistor wire knocks the voltage down to 5.5 volts when the old points would close. (which was why my tach was jumping all over). Instead of tearing all the tape of your wiring harness just run a new wire from your fuse panel under the dash (By your left foot) back to your new coil and hook it up to where it says BATT. On your fuse box there should be a location that says IGN. Normally there is a spare IGN terminal you can plug that wire into. This way you get a switched 12 volt source which the new coils wants and you do not have to destroy your original wiring harness trying to get that Pink wire out. Hope this helps
Thanks for the info so far guys, its very helpful. One question though about the article. Here is a quote. "There will be a junction in it(the pink wire) somewhere near the coil and the pink wire from the coil will connect to a yellow wire that goes down to the starter and a whitish wire with a weird "fabric" insulation on it that goes back to the firewall. First up is to cut the yellow wire off, tape it, and leave it in the harness. It's only live when the starter is " That kinda confuses me, cause what happens to the pink wire? I mean, it sounds like the white wire is the one I should be concerned with. So Im thinking, why cant I just cut the yellow wire like stated, then remove the whitish wire from the connector in the firewall and run a new wire from its previous location in the connector back to the coil. But, like I said, what happens to the pink wire? If I do this, Ive unhooked the white wire and cut and taped the yellow wire, but what is the other end of the pink wire connected to? Does it physically split into two different wires(yellow and white) at this "junction"? If so, than it too will be dead. But, if its hooked up elsewhere than I should tape off the end of the pink wire that is currently hooked to the stock coil cause it will still be live. Does that make sense? Thanks again guys.
Quote--"Here's a test: Disconnect the wire from the coil, turn ignition to run and check the voltage at that wire. It should be lower than the battery volts. More like 9-10 volts.. or something like that." You CANNOT measure voltage drop of a resistor in an open circuit. If there is no current flow, the resistor will not reduce the voltage. The wire must be connected, and the points/trigger mechanism functioning (engine running is the usual way) If you measure the voltage with the engine running, yeah, I'd expect about 9-10 volts. I don't understand the reason for the "flamethrower" coil. As far as I know, it's an ordinary coil with a built-in resistor. You'd save a lot of work by just using the coil you had. And, you'd have more spark power during cranking, too, because the resistor is bypassed by the wire from the starter. Am I wrong about the Flamethrower coil?
The resistor was for the points. With them replaced by the pertronix plate, the reduced voltage is no longer necessary or desired. My car had the wire replaced. The original owner just nipped the old wire at the firewall and spliced in a new one from there, so I guess I still have a short length of resistor wire on mine. I still have almost line voltage at that wire.
Greg, Let me explain how all this works, maybe that will help. The resistor is a calibrated length of special wire. It runs from the bulkhead firewall connector to a point where it is joined by a regular wire from the "R" terminal of the starter solenoid. From there is regular wire to the + side of the coil. When you are cranking the engine, the starter solenoid supplies battery voltage to the points via the "R" terminal. When the car starts, and you let the key go to the run position, voltage runs from the bulkhead connector, through the resistance wire to the coil. The only time the starter solenoid bypasses the resistance wire is during cranking.
That helps Larry. I understand how the whole cicruit works, however I did not know where to look to find the other end of the resistor wire, short of untaping the whole harness and following it. I guess my first instinct was correct in that it is at the starter. Ill let you know how it goes when I get back into it this weekend(or maybe be back asking more questions). hehe. Thanks again everyone.
The right way to replace the resistor wire is to unwrap the engine harness, and isolate the resistance wire, and the wire that goes to the starter. The foward portion of the firewall connector comes apart with the removal of one bolt in the center. The individual wires snap into the foward portion with a metal barb(I'll post a picture of one) You can compress the barb with a pair of needle nose pliers, and the wire pulls out from the front. The barbs are available at NAPA, or you can unsolder your original and use it for the new wire. In any case you can save the resistance wire, in case you would like to go back to stock.
