JLSmith

I was looking for a source of keyed power today to hook up my electic choke on my 66 L79 and found this mess:




What are these tan (yellow, brown?) wires for?

These two wires are pretty thick - maybe 12 or 14 gauge - and come out of the wiring loom that leads to the TI unit up front. They don't appear to be powered with the key off or on based on my multi-meter readings. The one wire has a factory-looking connector but the other looks like Bubba added a spade terminal connector. I can't tell where either of these should go or what purpose they serve. The car runs and everything works (expect windshield washers as the hoses are rotted). I can't ID them on the wiring diagram. Anyone have a guess as to what these two wires do?

Also coming from that loom are pink, gray, and black wires. The gray and pink wire lead to a plastic plug that has another pink wire coming out of it that connects to a red wire that disappears into a different wiring loom leading to the passenger side. Looking at the wiring diagram (could they make them any harder to read?), these wires appear to be the original TI connection to the distributor. My car came with TI but a PO converted it to Pertonix (it runs fine - at least up until I started pulling on all these wires ). I can't find anything that this connector would fit. Can someone confirm if I'm correct about the TI connection?

Thanks for your help, as always.
- Jeff

rich5962

Yes that looks like the TI harness. The other end would go towards the left front near the headlights to the TI Module. You may find three 1/4" diameter holes forming a triangle in the front inner skirt above the Park Lamp.

Normally, the heavy gauge Pink wire from the IGN switch(coming out to the right of the wiper motor) would have a mating plug into that WHITE wire(sheathed) with the plastic connector to power the TI module. The other wires would go to the TI coil(WHT(sheathed)+, BLK-), Pink and Gray to a 2 terminal female connector(with male plastic plug) to the distributor, along with another tied Pink that heads down to the starter solenoid "R" terminal for max voltage to the TI system during crank.

THe standard wiring diagram does not show the TI circuit. It's shown in the Service Manual, and also here....
http://www.tispecialty.com/articles/66-71diagram.htm

You could remove it to help clean up the engine bay. It looks a bit tired.

JLSmith

Thanks for the enlightenment. If I understand you correctly, you are saying those "tan" wires aren't tan at all and are really the white wires from the TI wiring. That make more sense. I wasn't finding the white wires and now I now why.

The car still has the TI module up front. I assume it must have quit working at some point. Does it make sense to repair it and use it as intended or just keep the Pertronix? Though "numbers matching", it is not a show car. I just want to drive it.
- Jeff

rich5962

I'm a proponent of the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't......"

I'd take all of the TI pieces out and box them up and put them on a shelf for now.