One discovery leads to another. I have the Choke circuit figured out now. Thank you for the direction. I notice my HEI is fed power from 2 wires (one Black, one Yellow) now attached to the Red input of the HEI distributor. After checking 2 wiring diagrams I've concluded that whoever did the installation last fall before I bought this car is wrong. It appears to be connected to the original resistor wiring. Car does run, but I believe it's still wrong. Previously I found green wires leading from the harness at the firewall to a pollution (TCS) solenoid at the right front of the engine. One is Ign.+ power the other goes to the trans, where it's no longer connected to anything. Engine vacuum is direct to the distributor. TCS not used. These 2 green wires pass right in front of the base of my distributor. Any reason I can't use the positive one to correctly power the HEI w/ 12 Ign.+ volts?

 

The easiest way to power the HEI is to run a 12/14ga wire from the IGN terminal in the fuse block to the Batt terminal on the HEI. Just cap the resistance wire and the yellow wire and tuck them into the harness.

 

Will do, thanks.

 

I read your original post. I'm sure there were issues caused by using both green wires. On my 1971 Cutlass 350, they controlled the TCS solenoid. This used a switch at the trans to stop vacuum advance except in 3rd or 4th gear. Mine is long disconnected. Vacuum is direct to distributor. One green wire is Ign.+ from a fused backup lamp circuit. The other ran to the switch at the trans. It would ground, in certain gears. Hence your issues I believe. No idea why it had a resistor. The yellow wire you refer to is a 12 volt supply at Start only to give the coil full power at start up. The black w/ pink tracer (per diagram) is a resistor wire. It will only give you 6 to 8 volts at Ign. Run position. This is what was wrong w/ my car. They connected the new HEI to the old wires. Car ran but I'm sure was not getting proper spark. I used the single green Ign.+ wire to feed the HEI & choke+, because it was already there, & simple to do. The better way is as suggested, & run a dedicated line from the Ign. terminal of the fuse box. What I did puts my Ignition on a fused circuit w/ backup lights. This could be a future issue. I'll run a proper connection soon.

 

If I remember I think I ran a wire directly to the fuse box and left the yellow and black wires wrapped up in the harness