Hei conversion on 1966 buick Electra HELP!

scenexsick

scenexsick

Member
I installed an HEI distributor the other day and had the motor at 10-12 degrees before TDC. As i went to drop the distributor in, the rotor would only come to rest either 1 notch before or after the #1 wire/plug. Is this correct due to the degree set? Any help would be great!
 
Notch? You mean one tooth? Once the distributor is fully seated, just rotate the distributor body to line up the rotor with the #1 tower. If you are using a big cap GM HEI, it needs full battery voltage. Don't power it with the points resistance wire.
 
LARRY70GS said:
Notch? You mean one tooth? Once the distributor is fully seated, just rotate the distributor body to line up the rotor with the #1 tower. If you are using a big cap GM HEI, it needs full battery voltage. Don't power it with the points resistance wire.
Click to expand...
EA
 
Hey Larry thanks for responding. After careful examination I realized that's what I needed to do last night and felt like a big dummy that I didn't notice it before. Now I have an issue a bit not starting everything is wired appropriately except for the fact that it's a new battery and I'm not getting 12 volts atall! The other issue is I only have one IGN1 terminal not two and I see some people were stating to wire the ignition one with the starter R terminal. Is that correct? I should probably take a little breather from it but it bugs me until I get this stuff done I appreciate all your help thank you so much
 
There is a brown/white wire from the ignition switch that is a resistance wire. You need to either bypass that, or replace it so that the HEI gets full battery voltage during run and crank. The R terminal on the starter solenoid supplies full battery voltage to the coil DURING CRANKING ONLY.
 
Ok, done did my friend. I just ran a 12g wire from ign1 to battery terminal replacing the pink wire+ on the hei. so
am i good, or do I replace the brown/white wire as well? if so, can I just take a short wire and patch the 2 together? Thank you so very much!
 
The wire that needs to be replaced is the brown/white resistance wire. It runs from the ignition switch to the firewall. The original coil + wire should be the power wire for the HEI.
 
Ok, understood:) Now, can i bypass the bulkhead connector and run the 12g ign wire straight through a hole on the firewall to the hei? The previous owner did that with the coil + wire for some reason, so would e easiest if that worked. Ill do it how its called for, ut curious
 
You need a wire with full battery voltage in RUN, and CRANK. Points ignitions use a resistance wire to drop running voltage. In your car, that resistance wire is under the dash. In later model Buicks, the wire was in the engine compartment. I don't know what was done to your wiring harness by the previous owner. It probably isn't good.
 
ok, one more please? I have a white raided wire that i read inj another thread was the resistance wire. It was patched into ign1 with pink. is that correct that i need to replace that as well?
 
LARRY70GS said:
Is this you?

www.v8buick.com

New some advice on an hei conversion PLEASE!

I installed an HEI distributor the other day and had the motor at 10-12 degrees before TDC. As i went to drop the distributor in, the rotor would only...
www.v8buick.com www.v8buick.com
Click to expand...
Yessir, that is me, i believe. Sorry if so many questions, ut wanted to make sure i was going through things correctly...... I was stomped y my own over guessing and ignorance onn that one, ut figured it out fast my mishap, lol! As for the "braided white wire", I found it spliced with the pink wire running to the firewall, so just installed that ack to where it was before i touched it. I have the manuals downloaded and refer to them a lot, ut some are hard to make out and labeled in another part of the diagram where the other info lacks. Im getting ready to fire it up, so hopefully I did good;) Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!
 
If you do not have an ohm meter, I think you should get one, maybe before your fire it up and run it too long. With the ohm meter, you can check that your rewire is doing as Larry suggested, supplying 12V both when the key is in the run position, and when the key is in the start position.
 
I explained FULLY what to do to avoid as many problems as needed in another thread. Either here or on v8buick.com. Do a search & I'm sure you'll find it. It details completely how the system works & what to do to make the conversion as simle as possible with the least amount of wiring re-do which involves a relay & basically one additional wire.

Tom T.
 
Hey tom, trust me, i looked and looked and just got information, nit y it, until i cam here. Not saying you havent put the info out there, just that online searches are so saturated with adds and horseshit, that a person tends to give up before the actually find what their looking for. There's is alot about it here ive found, ut havent seen what you suggest. If you could, post a link. Thanks a bunch!
 
scenexsick said:
Hey tom, trust me, i looked and looked and just got information, nit y it, until i cam here. Not saying you havent put the info out there, just that online searches are so saturated with adds and horseshit, that a person tends to give up before the actually find what their looking for. There's is alot about it here ive found, ut havent seen what you suggest. If you could, post a link. Thanks a bunch!
Click to expand...
I tried looking the info up, ut connect seem to use the right keywords. Id love to check it out and apologize for the nuisance
 
Lets start. To get ANY HEI to work properly it needs a FULL 12 volt supply. You of course won't get that with the resistance wire in place.
Why MANY say it needs to be replaced.
Here's how the system works. When the key is in the run position it starts out at 12 volts usually going from the ignition switch to the firewall bulkhead connector. From the bulkhead connector it transistions into a resistence wire to the positive,+, side of the ignition coil to cut down on the voltage to the points so that the points give a longer service life otherwise you would be replacing them every few thousand miles or less.
When the ignition key is in the start position a full 12 volts goes to the purple wire on the starter solenoid. When the solenoid is activated it pulls a disc inside the solenoid that makes contact with the "R" terminal on the solenoid that a yellow wire is hooked up to. Now this will supply FULL battery voltage to the positive, +, side of the coil where the yellow wire is also hooked up with the positive, +, side of the coil along with the resistence wire to provide as much battery voltage to the points in the crank position ONLY to help start a cold engine. When the key is released it goes back to the resistene wire.
To wire up a relay you use the resistor wire to trigger the relay. Another wire goes to the battery terminal on the HEI. Now you need to supply a 12 volt supply wire from just about anyhwere where there is 12 volts with the key on in the run position. Like I said it can be taken from just about anywhere. I usually use the yellow 12 volt supply wire on the kickdown switch. So this relay can be put on the firewall between the HEI & the kickdown. We're only talking about a few inches of wiring needed from the kickdown switch to the relay on the firewall. You now have your 12 volt supply. The resistence wire gets hooked up to one terminal of the relay. No need to lengthen the wire. This is your trigger wire. Last is you need a short piece of wire from the relay to the HEI battery terminal. DONE.
Hope I wrote this so you can understand. IF not ask questions.

Tom T.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top