Excellent! Congrat's. That is such a good feeling.

 

Yes, yes it is. Now to move on to installing these Lokar throttle cable and kickdown cables. Should be interesting to say the least.

 

Ok Gary I am back to a problem. Since I was trying to get the truck to start I was jumping the solenoid so I could be at the distributor and carb and it would crank but now I have found out that it will not start by the key but it will turn over. For some reason I am not getting power to the coil when the red/lt blue wire is hooked up to the solenoid. I'm about to go through your diagrams but wanted to get it in your head process first.

 

I think my problem is here with the wire for the neutral safety switch, I dont have it connected to anything and not sure what it should be hooked up to.

 

Maverick,

I think you said it would turn over (crank) but not start with the key..right? If it cranks, it is not the neutral safety switch(NSS). NSS will not let the engine roll over.

I would put a timing light on a plug wire and have someone turn it over with the key to check for spark myself. Wondering if you are losing power to the ignition when the key is turned to start.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers!

 

Oh, I was going to ask...what did you finally go with for a dizzy? DS II or HEI? I just found your thread and read all 18 pages, but I either missed it or you did not say.

I have bought 2 of the HEI dizzy's now. I converted both of my 460's with them and they kick major butt!

Cheers!

 

I went with a small cap HEI ready to start distributor from Summit racing.

 

If I take the wire off the solenoid, turn the key on to run and use a screwdriver to jump the solenoid the truck will crank and run just fine but if I hook the wire up to the solenoid and try using the key to crank the truck normally it will not run. With the wire hooked up, i am losing power to the coil. The ready to run distributor uses 3 wires (red, orange, and black) Red goes to the + side of the coil, orange goes to the - side of the coil, and black goes to a ground. It is a aftermarket coil specific to the distributor.

 

And the reason I said the NSS is because as Gary specified the red and white wire from the plug goes to the NSS, if I put power to it the truck will turn over. If I ground it, the truck will do nothing with the wire hooked to the solenoid and using the key in a normal operation. I am stumped with what it is supposed to be hooked to.

 

hmmmm. Okay..., alot of the keyed hot wires lose power when the key is turned to start, to maximize the current to the starter I believe. (Why the stereo is not on while cranking for example.)

On the left inner fender, is there a white wire with a blue stripe? I tapped into that to trigger a relay for my fuel pump and HEI. On a DSII setup, that is the power supply to the brain box.

Not sure what you do for a living, but let me toss this out just in case. HEI usually needs alot of juice to run. I like to run a 12 gage wire to the HEI coil. 14 is probably ok, but 16 would be sketchy and 18 asking for trouble IMHO.

Hope this helps.

 

Oh, forgot to say this. If someone can correct the wire for a TFI setup...or a 1986 versus my 83, I hope they will!

 

It's much better to use the "hot in crank and run" wire to trigger a relay, and use that relay to close a 30A fused 10Ga. circuit to feed an 'all in one' distributor.
I've never dealt with an MSD hei knockoff, but they are all power hungry.
Trying to use a 16Ga ignition circuit to feed it is like peeing on a bonfire.

 

Yup! I have never had problems with a 12 gage power wire to an HEI...having said that I know several people that have had problems with them...and usually they hooked the stock wire up and it is 16 gage at best. I forgot to mention the fuse though.

Are you sure they need to be on a 30 amp? Mine is run that way because that is what I had handy at the moment, but I was wondering if I might have put in one that is a little to heavy for just the ignition circuit.

 

I really don't know. I'm just parroting the instructions from Skip White for their HEI style distributors.

I also don't know what MSD calls for with their "ready to run" line of HEI.
I DO know that a lot of flakey things will happen if there is not enough current to supply coil on cap style ignitions.

You are never going to have a problem *because* there is excess capacity in the supply harness.

 

Nah, the problem I was/am worried about is damage to the unit because too much current for it to handle got to it, either without popping the fuse, or before popping the fuse.

I have never heard of Skip White, but if his?/their? dizzy had instructions that said use a 30 amp, then that makes me feel better, since my Dragon Fire unit said noting about it...there were not alot of instructions in there...just a couple warnings was about the extent of it.

Where did MSD come from? OP said a small cap HEI from Summit.

Cheers!