I'm in the process of installing my Mallory Tach-drive Distributor. How do I identify the cars ignition wire? Is it the red wire with white insulation cover?

I have a mallory ignition ballast resistor to install. Does it replace the small cylindrical piece attached to the side of the coil? Man there are a lot of wires running around here.




[Modified by 74 vert, 7:23 PM 3/15/2003]


[Modified by 74 vert, 2:58 AM 3/16/2003]


[Modified by 74 vert, 3:00 AM 3/16/2003]


[Modified by 74 vert, 3:01 AM 3/16/2003]

 

Well, guess I'll look in the haynes manual. Hope I don't blow the module.

 

The manual did not help. I took a couple of more pics. Perhaps someone can help. The only wire I removed from the coil was the one from the stock distributor. The distributor wire was connected to the positive side of the coil. The balance of the wires are connected to the negative side of the coil. I'm confused my the wires running to the little round piece attached to the coil support thats bolted to the manifold. I'm not sure how to hook the wires to the new mallory ballast too. Some help would be appreciated.



:confused:

 

I've never installed a mallory dist. so can't be much help. The little cylinder thing is a condenser I beleive. On my Crane ignition (installed before I bought the car) the condenser wire was left disconnected. There is a black ground wire (part of the Crane Ignition) connected where the condenser is mounted to the coil holder. I would follow the Mallory instructions as close as possible and, if you're still unsure, call mallory for some technical assistance. In the meantime maybe someone with experience can jump in and help out.
Good luck

 

I'm goin to assume the white insulated red wire is the ignition. I'm just not sure why the stock ignition wire would connect to the ground side of the coil, while the Mallory instructin says I should connect the ignition wire to the positive side of the coil via the ballast. The blue connection wire looks to be a ground from the wiper motor on the side of the coil bracket. I'm kind of eager to hook it up. I spent most of the day just running the new plug wires. Running the wires from the plugs to the distributor and crimping them was a PITA.
:boxing

 

Where are all the corvette experts? :mad

 

Hi i checked my car and the wire with the insulation on it i didn,t use but the only thing is i installed an MSG distrbutor and it has its own wireing for the coil but i will look in my assembly manual and tell you what it is Dave :grouphug:

 

My guess they were out driving and tinkering, thats what I was doing. :)

I am no expert but I will share what I know. It appears in your pic you have your condenser and all still connected to the coil, that should be your negative. NOW, whether or not those wires were hooked to the - on the coil from what I know, makes no difference. I found that the polarity on my coil was reversed the other day. But it hads been running like that since I got it, and ran no different switched. SO, if your cond and other wires were on one side, then your positive should be on the other side. The little round thing is your condenser. Any thing electrically connected to brackets is ground.


[Modified by 71,454,4spd, 10:15 PM 3/15/2003]

 

Ok, I guess I'll separate the red wire from the black one and run the red one to the ballast and run the black one to the positive side of the coil. Man I'm scared I'm goin' to blow the distributors module. :confused:

 

Where is the black one coming from?

 

The black one is on top of the red one thats covered with white insulation.




[Modified by 74 vert, 6:06 AM 3/16/2003]

 

The black one is on top of the red one thats covered with white insulation.

 

The black wire is the + positive coil wire. It has a factory installed in-line resistance wire so there is no need to add a ballast resistor. That wire is connected to the one with the fabric on it and it also continues down to the starter. The reason for that is to bypass the resistance wire to give more voltage when starting.
That condenser (small cyl) on the coil is not needed. Since you are removing the points you can remove that too.

Hook up the black original + wire to the + side of the coil. Hook up the mallory red wire to that same pos lug on the coil. That will be the only two wires on the pos side of the coil.
Hook up the Mallory green wire to the neg lug on the coil. That will be the only wire on that lug.
Make sure that the wire with the fabric goes to the starter only. I cant remember which terminal it goes to. If you are not sure, you can remove it as the Mallory Unilite module will get enough power anyway (I did on my car - no problems)
The Mallory brown wire goes to any good solid ground. I ran mine to the frame. This is probably the most important wire. If you forget to hook it up the module will burn up.

If you ever plan on installing an MSD box it's easy with the Mallory.
I've had my Mallory & MSD for almost 10 years now with no faults (I did burn up a module once because I forgot to hook up the brown neg wire - my fault)
I keep a spare module in the car in case I get stupid again.




[Modified by 71coupe, 1:07 AM 3/16/2003]

 

Thanks, I connected the black wire to the coil via the ballast and taped off both ends of the red wire with the white insulation. The red wire ran to the starter. The car started right up. I proceeded to set the timing and Idle.