Hello everyone first I want to say thank you to everyone that has given me a piece of their Oldsmobile wisdom and helped me be a little wiser working on my 1967 cutlass. Im still trying to solve my no dash lights issue. When I fist bought the car the dash lights were very dim for a couple months then finally went out. I recently checked my fuse box for power and everything is working but the instrument panel and the fuse above it. I think it says trans. I have a 350 tranny out of a 75 cutlass on the original 300 engine. But can anyone tell me why those two fuses wont get power. Or what to look for. Mainly the instrument panel. Thank you. I tested the headlight switch. With the key in the on position. Two wires. a red wire and a yellow wire both, running to the same terminal, have power. Also diagonally across the red and yellow wires,is a brown wire with a white stripe. It also has power

 

The TRANS and INSTR fuses are fed by the pink wire from the ignition switch. This wire also feeds the resistor wire to the coil. This pink wire is only hot with the key in the RUN position. Nothing else connects to this circuit, at least not with factory wiring. You don't by chance have an electronic distributor conversion that may have mucked with this wire, do you? And FYI, this is all shown in the wiring diagram in the Chassis Service Manual.

 

Hello Joe thank you for responding. Yes I do have an electric distributor. So the pink wire on the back of the ignition switch going to the distributor should also have a wire going to the fuse box? Are you saying the wire going to the fuse box might not be making contact?

 

I'm saying that I have no idea how your electronic ignition was wired or if in doing so the wire that is supposed to power those two fuses was cut. And if there's a splice (especially if it's a crappy crimp fitting), be suspicious.

 

Ok but my other question, the same pink wire should go in two direction correct? by the way i had this issue before the HEI distributor was installed

 

am i wrong? I think I remember two pink wire from the same terminal behind the ignition switch

 

check for rusty fuses or clips in your fuse box

 

The pink wire from the ignition switch should run to the fuse box to power those two fuses and to the firewall connector where it powers the resistor wire to the coil.

 

thank you again sir. Your knowledge is appreciated

 

Hello again Joe. Im sorry to keep bothering you but Im not good at understanding diagrams. Im better at verbal instructions. But my question is about the resister. The only resister I can find is on the firewall and it is wired to the alternator voltage regulator. Which is not in use because I use an updated alternator. Could this be the resister you are talking about? If not I will have to unscrew the fuse box to find the pink wire

 

The resistor IS the pink wire from the firewall connector to the coil. The wire looks like normal wire but it is a special resistor wire.

 

Yes i understand the pink wire is the resister wire. The HEI coil needs 12v so the resister was bypassed or removed.

 

The entire wire is a resistor, if I recall. Use it to trip a relay for full battery to the HEI.

 

I read some where that the original wire that ran to the points distributor shouldnt be used on an HEI swap because the original wire could not hold a 12v current. I think it said the original points wire was only a 4 volt or something like that

 

That's what I'm trying to tell ya. It won't power the HEI, but it will trigger a relay.

 

got you

 

Hello joe padavano. So I removed the wheel well to access the fuse box and I found one wire at the bottom. on the passenger side, of the plastic harness. It looks loke it was cut or pulled apart. Only sticking out a couple inches from the harness. No sign of the other end. So since I have an electric ignition, I have a straight hot wire from the ignition switch to the distributor with no resister. Can you give me advise on how to power the cut wire I found on the fuse box? I assume it doesnt take a 12 volt power source. Does it? Does it need a resister? Does it wire to the ignition switch? If it does, to which terminal ? thank you I think I need to find a restrictor wire and connect it to the ignition