Thank you for clearing that all up Fordworth. I'm working on mine now.

 

So I took the old wires out for that clip on the coil and i'm wiring in my + and green wire in it so it clips on the coil nice and cleanly. Since you have done this before, is it better to run the ground down to the block or battery? And, from the coil to ignition with the red wire, which wire is it in the ignition? I'll be hooking up a test light to double check, but it would help if i know before hand.

 

I just ran the ground to the firewall. I believe the switched lead is solid red with no marker stripe but definately check to be sure.

 

I'll definetly check. Thanks for your help fordworth.

ol'bluef150, did any of this help you solve your problem or are you still confused on yours? When you run your wire from the coil to the ignition, you're elimenating the ballast resistor.

 

No problem. I'm curious to see how it works out. I'll be gone the rest of the day but I'll check back tonight.

 

Well as bad as the rain just got here, it might not be tonight, but atleast I know what i'm doing when things clear up.

 

Hey guys,

This was my first post on this forum and I want to say thanks to everyone who replied. I am honestly surprised at how much good quality feedback and input I got, so, thanks.

Here's what I've decided to do:

I am going to remove the ignition MODULE completely (some people have used the term module and box and coil interchangeably - when I say module, it's the aluminum 4"x4" box that's mounted on my driver's inner fender). Again, I am running a Summit "ready to run" billet distributor and a high performance coil.

My distributor has three wires - an ignition hot, a ground, and a "-" terminal coil wire. I am going to wire it just like that - bypassing and removing the module completely. The stock ignition module wiring harness or plug has two wires that go INTO it - an ignition hot 12v and a ground. I'm going to use the 12v hot wire since it won't be plugged into the box any more.

I will ground the distributor to the intake or to the firewall. I will hook up the negative coil terminal wire to, you guessed it, the negative terminal of the coil.

As for wiring up the coil, I'm going to also wire the positive side of the coil up to the same ignition hot 12v wire that I'm running to the distributor. I need to call Summit and find out if their particular coil requires the ballast resistor.

Anyways, thanks again for all the input. I probably won't get to it till this weekend, but will definitely report the outcome.

 

All right, one more update to this thread.

I got a hold of Summit to ask about the need for a ballast resistor - for the coil and/or the distributor.

It turns out that the distributor I have NEEDS the ballast resistor for the inside it. I will be wiring up the ballast resistor as it's shown on the instructions.

In summary -

Red wire for the distributor gets a full 12v from an ignition hot source
Ground goes to, well, ground.
The "-" wire goes to the negative terminal of the coil.

The ballast resistor gets wired in between the 12v ignition hot and the positive side of the coil. Apparently the 12v red wire that goes to the distributor gets the full 12v to run the electronics inside the distributor. But the negative wire that runs to the distributor (from the coil) is the one that needs the voltage suppression - which happens starting on the positvie side of the coil. That negative wire apparently is where the "fire" comes from for the distributor and the plugs. This, on my distributor, can't get the full 12v once running or it will burn up the distributor.

Phew.....man it's complicated.

I will report later.

 

Okay, i got side tracked on some other projects and I've got a question on the red wire to ignition. Is it going to a Full time hot even when key is out, or red wire w/ blue stripe that's only hot in RUN?