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Ignition help 1970 Chevelle

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Discussion starter · #21 ·
Ok i came in to my shop today just to get this off my mind and make it right. here is what i have found so far and i think different build plants use different color wires and different types of ways to do things.

First off i thought the resistor wire was cut in half and spliced to run a wire to the coil. This is not the case. There are 2 different cloth covered wires coming out of the harness at the same point and i think the both go together to the coil. They are not long enough to reach. That is because the wire broke off at a point and i will have to add a extender now.

One cloth covered wire is red in color
The other cloth covered wire is black in color

Coming from the starter there are 2 cloth covered wires.
the first is a thinner gauge red wire coming from the R pole
The other is a thicker gauge redish or maybe a little orangish coming from the other small terminal. Both go up in to the loom.

I have some picture i just added to my photo bucket account.

So now my question is this> Is it possible or likely that both of these wires near the coil are the only 2 wires that i need to connect? I see no signs that another yellow wire was ever in this car. Possibly it is orangish red and this is what i am looking for?

Possibly the black wire that is wrapped in cloth is the resistor wire and the red wire is the wire coming from the starter?
 
#22 · (Edited)
Pretty clear that the harness has been taken apart, wires changed/fixed or "edited".

Either take it all apart to uncover the missing components or allow some correct wires to be placed or
buy the correct harness.

Unwrapping it all is not that big of an issue. At least then we can get all of the right ones going where they need to go.

Edit. The cloth covered wires look like appliance wire. Used in stoves etc.

If you look at the bulkhead on the firewall you should see 1 cloth covered yellow wire which is the factory resistance wire to the coil. It will not have cloth on it all the way to the bulkhead but will(should) be starting about 4" from the connector.
 
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Discussion starter · #23 ·
Thats the thing. I dont think it has ever been apart. All these wire appear to be original. The black cloth covered wire is steel and the red cloth covered wire is copper. The smaller red wire is the same wire that comes from the starter.

Can it be possible that the wire would be red and not orange? Look at my photos i took of the wires coming off the starter. they are original fabric covered from the factory.
 
#24 ·
I edited the post above.

There were no cloth covered wires at the starter from the factory.The tape used on your harness appears far from factory.

Should have a purple and yellow at the starter.
 
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Discussion starter · #25 ·
That was my tape. The wires were ripped from the old starter so I put new ends and taped it up.

When someone replaces wires, I doubt they would use what appears to be a factory type cloth covering. Maybe I got something oddball built out of Baltimore back then. Best thing to do is wire it up and see if it works.
 
#26 ·
Your car your call. In all the years I've been doing this I've never seen what you describe. Headers were murder on the starter side of the wiring harness. I would still bet that the wires were replaced or there is splices inside that taped up arrangement. A recent one we did had 7 splices between the starter and the bulkhead. I cannot even figure out how some got damaged where the splices were. But it made for a nice rainbow of colours.
 
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#28 ·
Image


GM has been consistent in wire colors. There are two wires to coil + (combined in one terminal): Yellow (from R terminal of starter) and white (cloth covered from ignition). There is one wire from coil - (black to distributor) unless you have a factory tach then there is also a brown tach wire.

I would get some wire and an external resistor (porcelain and were OE on early Mopars) and create a hot wire to get the car running and eliminate the ignition circuit as a problem.
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
After talking to Levon Yesterday, I got it figured out. The yellow wire in this car was either replaced at one point or just had a oddball wire. Which i doubt was original. Did a quick check this morning and that wire works. So i have a Wire coming from the R side of the starter and a black resistance wire coming from the bulkhead.

Everything is wired up, Cranked it and i got spark. Just waiting on my manifolds for tomorrow and it should be good to test fire the car.

Thanks everyone. :beers:
 
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