Hey guys my name is Billy and a few months ago i purchased a 1969 l71 tuxedo black/red convertible. Car is absolutely gorgeous and all original. Except one of the previous owners took out the TI ignition and rigged it with points. Car when I got was always running rough. Anyway I purchased the Lectric Limited breakerless ignition to take place of the points but car starts sometimes and sometimes it does not. I spoke to the technician at LLtd and he says that almost all the time people who took out the TI system to put points on car usually screwed it up. So I ordered an engine harness from them today. My problem and question is while attempting to start car the white cloth resistance wire coming from inside the car melted(it looks to come from a red wire off the ignition). Question I have is I have a ceramic ballast as well as the white cloth wire. Is this normal am I supposed to have both. Also the white cloth wire coming from starter is linked together with the wire that melted to one side of ceramic ballast resistor with the other side going to coil.

Speaking to the guy at Lectric Limited he said that white cloth wire coming from ignition should be disconected on a points distributor. So where then do I get power for the coil if I disconnect that wire.

Its been a mild winter up here in CT and I would love to at least get car running before bad weather hits. THank you in advance. And if anyone is near the stamford-New Canaan area I would love to meet up. My very first car was a 71 LT1 but that was over 20 years ago. Forgot how to work on these cars or how they should be. I also own a 72 Z28 and a 72 pantera but both are non original. Thanks in advance and glad to be back in the brotherhood

 

Both the points and TI factory ignition systems used resistance wire to power the coils. But, they both used different resistance values for the wire. The modern electronic ignition system you have likely needs 12vdc to supply it for proper function.

You need to find a 12vdc feed that is ON with the ignition system [not on at all times]. You can run one from another IGN terminal on the fuse panel, or you can tap into the resistance wire immediately after it leaves the fuse block, then run a standard wire lead up to the ignition system. Running the system as it is (with the stock resistance wire) would limit the current that could flow to the system and probably work poorly [if at all] at elevated rpms.

 

Someone added the ballast resistor, it isn't factory.

 

Well I went home tonight and fiddled with the car. I took out the ballast and wired the resistance wire which by the way goes under dash and connects to pink ignition wire. So I have both ignition wire and starter wire hooked up to the positive side of coil. And the negative goes to the distributor. Car started like never before. Now I have a question. The resistence wire when running runs at 12 or more volts. Is this normal as I thought the resistance wire is supposed to lower the voltage. Thanks agwin guys and photos will be coming soon

 

My wife's 70 LT-1 has a pink wire sliced into the ignition switch on top of the steering column that goes through the firewall to the TI harness, this pink wire gives 12VDC to the TI harness. There is no white fabric wire from inside the passenger compartment to the K-66 harness that I know of, I think someone has been doing modifications to your harness. The fabric covered wiring is usually a resistance wire and the K-66 harness going forward from the distributor/coil area to the amplifier up front has white fabric resistance wire in it. Maybe some pictures of your system would help us out here.

 

Unfortunately today morning when I was cranking car for some reason the cloth wire melted(I believe it may have been grounding against ignition shielding. I saw it late and turned off car. Anyway the cloth is gone and the insulation melted a bit. It is actually connected to the pink wire coming from igition with a connector it is not spliced in.

 

Shrug off the 'Bubba' riding your shoulders and tape off or remove any wiring that isn't in use. "Hot" wires with 'loose ends' is not something you want hanging around in your engine compartment [or anywhere else, for that matter].

Since the power wire is coming from the inside of the passenger compartment, someone has spliced that wire into the system...it is NOT a resistance wire. If the wire size is adequate, and it powers ON & OFF with the ignition switch, you can keep it as the power source for the ignition.

 

Yes i will use that as my power source. It is a switched 12v source. My question is does the lectric limited need a 12v power source or a lesser amount through either a ballast resistor or resistor wire. I have the wire from the TI wiring that was removed from car can i use that

 

Here are some pics hopefully this works







And a pic of my other baby that imin the midst of restoring

 

Love the black/red vette and the Pantera isn't so shabby either

 

You just need to call Lectric Limited and ask them if the power source for their 'breakerless ignition system' is a "direct" 12vdc or if it needs to be supplied through a ballast resistor (or resistor wire). If it requires a ballast resistance, you also need to ask what the value of that ballast resistor should be.

My suspicion is that it should be supplied with a "direct" 12vdc, which means that the resistance wire [and/or ballast resistor] needs to be bypassed. The power wire you have coming from the passenger compartment should suffice if that's what you need.

Also ask them what coil is required for that LL ignition system. The coil needs to be a good match with the electronic ignition, or you can have other problems. Did you not get any manual with that LL ignition system? It should have all the info you need.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I just got off the phone with them and they said i have to runwith the resistance wire. Except i believe that the TI equipped cars and the regular points cars have a different resistance wires. I ordered an engine harness from them and i will use their resistance wire that is on the harness. They told me wire should have a resistance of 1.3 ohms and i have their coil which runs with the system. When i receive harness i will connect the resistance wire to the 12v switched wire and hopefully everything will be ok. Or am idoing something wrong

 

Love that Pantera! I'm soooo jealous.

 

If I may make a suggestion.

I would replace the engine harness with an all new TI harness from LL and install a new transitorized ignition module. There are new units that are much better and reliable than when new.

Now i do not have a TI car. Mine is a 70 L46. All I know is that once I went through and returned mine to original condition, it ran like it was brand new. I could not believe I was driving the same car. Starts perfect every time. Used to be 50/50 on whether it felt like starting easily.

To get to that point I had to have the original distributor, carb, and wiring rebuilt/replaced along with new plugs and wires. Also replaced the battery cables. I had found a couple melted wires and found that bubba had worked overtime on screwing up the wiring. Especially the grounding circuit. Plus the wiring is 40+ years old. A small gas leak and a spark and that gorgeous ride is gone.

You spent a pretty penny on that sweet machine. Don't cut corners.

Just my two cents.


Bill

 

Go with the suggested plan from LL, first. Then, if that doesn't work, the electronic ignition module you have may be the problem. Are you certain that you have a good 'ground' line connected to that system?

 

We run a Pertronix Ignitor III in our 70LT1, the built in rev limiter comes in handy as it would on your solid lifter big block. I left the K-66 amp in place for those NCRS experts. The Pertronix will run a 0.32ohm coil at a full 12vdc (pink wire.) Simple and reliable for more than 8K miles to date.

 

Went home today and looked through my parts bin and found the original wiring to the TI amp. There was a resistance wire that went to the coil from the module box. Checked the resistance and its about 1.5 ohms. Just around what is needed for the electric limited ignition. Hopefully I checked the resistance right or do I check it while the car is running and wire gets hot? Anyone hooked it up and car starts and idles like never before. Absolutely 150% better smoother idle and instant and crisp throttle response. Now all I have to do is timing and car should be all set. Another case of Bubba screwing around with the wiring and making car run on 6 cylinders.
so what do you guys think did I check resistance right?