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Ok, so I have agreed to perform a miracle. A friend has a mid 70's boat with dual 302 engines. He removed the engines for a rebuild and instead of neatly removing and labelling the wiring he but it all out!!!! FML SO I am about to rewire the entire engine assembly(s) Not too big a deal really as there isn't much to them, however. I can't seem to figure the distributors out. These are a typical three wire distributor but the colour coding has me a little unsure, Two Black wires with a red stripe and one black wire with an orange strip. I think it is safe to assume the orange stripe goes to coil neg and one of the red stripes to coil pos. but which one? does it matter? the other a ground? are they reversable? Grrrrr Any help is appreciated.
Typical 3 wire distributors are electronic. If they are, you should have a electronic module that connects to the distributor, the coil will not connect directly to the distributor. The coil will only connect directly to the distributor if the distributor has points. You are really going to have to play detective and figure out what type of distributor you have. The typical Ford duraspark II distributor had 3 wires going to the module, and they were orange purple and black.
Thanks, I am very familiar with the ford ignition system hence why this is such a confusing task. Will dig into it deeper and will almost certainly be back with more questions
If the electronic module happens to be in the distributor, then one of the wires would go directly to the coil. A pertronix conversion module comes to mind.