antweave

I change my msd conversion kit because it stopped firing for what ever reason I don't know. But anyway I went with a new HEI and after spending my whole weekend fooling with this car oh yeah which is a 455 in a 71 442. After finally get the HEI to fire after a quick test drive the engine died. My question is did the conversion kit run on 9 volts and I know I should run the HEI 12 volts. Somebody tell me if this is my problem I have a small 9 volt wire from the ignition coming through the fire wall I split it and connected the pink 12 volt wire to the 9 volt will this work or have I burned out the module due to lack of voltage. After getting the engine running it just quiet with no signals and had smoke from the passenger side and it was electrical smoke.

Mike77

I am certainly no expert on ignition systems , you should have 12 volts to the HEI. Most of our era cars are 12 volt systems. 9 volt would be a problem.

Charlie Jones

The ignition "hot" wire that went to the coil was a special "resistance" wire that only supplied 9 volts to the coil. In the original "points " ignition system.
You need to tape off the end of this wire and fasten it up out of the way.
Then run a 14 gauge wire from your BAT terminal of the HEI directly to an accessory terminal on your fusebox. You need one that has 12 V only with the switch on.

antweave

I got some assistance yesterday evening from my engine builder who came by my home and he got everything straight and he did tell me that I needed a 12 volt to the fuse of or the ignition. But after running the car for about 20 minutes it died out and I could smell some electrical smoke from the passenger side I even saw the smoke it wasn't a big cloud of smoke. I tested for fire with a old spark plug and the #1 wire and no fire have burned up the distributor or the module or something.


He did not have time to assist with running a 12volt wire

rjohnson442

The original 9v wire is a fuseible link I believe, you probably toasted it. As stated above run with a good 12volts. you can test straight from the battery to the dist. for now if you just want to confirm spark.

MDchanic

Did you check for voltage at the supply wire to the HEI (marked "BAT")?

As with anything else, when there's a problem, you have to troubleshoot step by step until you find the cause, with an emphasis on checking the last thing you did before it stopped working.

And I know of nothing located on the passenger side of a '71 Cutlass engine compartment that would smoke and cause this problem.

Also, you should post only one thread for a given question. Now we have to try to get one of the moderators to combine this with the other one.

- Eric

oldcutlass

I deleted the other thread as there is more info on the issue here.


It's time to get the meter out, and see what your voltage is at the distributor.

Lars

For test and tune purposes you can run a jump wire directly from the battery to the hei. Clamp the wire on the terminal with a vicegrip.

BILL DEMMER

that old resistor wire can be used to drive a relay for switching a full 12 volts to the hei.


bill