[Joe454]

Ok, Some electrical help
needed.

#1. Where does the fuse block
get the power from? The
battery cable terminal of the
starter?? How big of a wire
should it be?
#2. Can I run a wire<size?>
from the fuse block to the
HEI as long as its only hot
while the key is on??

These questions are probably
common sense to some of you
but, I never switched a
points to HEI before. Geeze,
I never had a car old enough
to have points before

Thanks for any help.

------------------

–Joe454–
"67 Malibu"

 

[73Malibu]

Joe there has been several threads about this subject. Since I have done this swap successfully, I will give you the info.

1) Your fusebox feeds the power through the horn relay, via the battery. On my 73 there was a wire attached behind the positive cable on the starter solenoid, this ran to the horn relay. Another wire fed into the fuse box from the same post. Your car may go directly from the bat to the horn relay on the rad support. My Horn relay is on the firewall.

2) For the HEI feed you need to first remove the "R" wire from the second starter post. This ends up doubled up on the coil positive lead. This wire is not needed with HEI. Second you need to replace the old positve wire leading out of the fusebox. The easiest way is to find a late model Chevy with HEI, remove the engine half of the fusebox connector, this will have a bunch of metal spades attached to the wires. Carefully push out the spade leading to the HEI coil. Take the whole wire including the coil connector. Then do the same thing to your car remove the resistor wire, then push in the HEI wire. The stock wire is nice heavy gauge, and will likley be close to the right length to fit without splicing. The original wires from the fusebox to the ign switch back through fusebox conncetor are heavy enough also. You can also plug into the IGN lead on the front of the fusebox with a 14 gauge wire for the easy way out.
Good Luck

------------------
Frank W
Gen X Member#22 (MA)
73 Malibu Coupe
http://hometown.aol.com/folingo/myhomepage/auto.html
Mighty 305 Power

 

[Joe454]

Thanks Frank.
Sounds fairly easy. Just a little
time and labor. As for your answer
to #1. Is that the way the factory
wired it?
Battery/or /starter~to~horn-relay~to~fusebox?

[This message has been edited by Joe454 (edited 08-08-99).]

 

[mjpell]

Just an FYI. The Horn Relay doubles as a junction block. If you don't care about horns (tho you should for safety reasons). You can bypass the horn relay.

Typically #10 is as big a wire you need anywhere on the car. #12 will work for most things.

You should take the time to solder your connections, and try to cover/seal them if possible. I use the heat-shrink stuff.

Good luck,

------------------
Gold #178
aka Tailspin on IRC Chat