74Runneer

I just got my ignition system from fbo today and I'm trying to hook it up to my 318. My old ignition module had 5 pins coming from it and my new one only has four. Can I use the samewiring harness? Also its supposed to eliminate the use of a ballast resistor. How do I just take that out?

Coil set up: there is 1 positive wire and 3 negative ones. One of the negative ones is about 4 inches long with a cylinder at the end and grounds to the intake. My question is, where do I ground it to? The coil mounting bolt or the intake manifold bolt?

moe7404

this should give you the info you need.
http://www.allpar.com/fix/electronic-ignition.html
basically the 5 pin box was first. it used 2 wires to take power into the box. the later 4 pin box uses only 1 wire to power the box. the resistors are diff, so check the diagrams for that. big hint which ever resistor you use get 2 extra put them in the glove at the first no start just swap one out. cold or hot weather makes it worse.

74Runneer

Does anyone know if this is a 4 point ballast resistor?

This is a wire that went to the negative stud on my coil??? It goes behind my break booster. Anyone have an idea of what this is?

This is the negative that goes to the control module. Looks normal.

This is the positive wire to the coil.

Do these wires look like they might go together? They black wire goes to the ac compressor near the pulley, and the brownish wire comes from a cylinder looking thing on the condenser. What do you think?

This is a wire coming from the negative stud of the coil. Is this the noise suppression for the radio?

I still dont know what this wire is??

440roadrunner

You have a 4 pin resistor, which will work with EITHER a 4 or 5 pin ECU. I'm not really familiar with the FBO box, "but heard" that inside it is actually a GM HEI module, which is what I'm actually using

The red wire with the eyelet is not a factory wire, and I cannot tell what/ where it goes

440roadrunner

Cannot tell from that photo, but seems reasonable. Easy to find out,

For the suspect positive coil wire, see if it has power with the ECU unplugged

For the suspect neg. coil wire, it should only go one place -- back to the ECU connector, and should not have power with the ECU unplugged.

440roadrunner

I would say yes. Easy to check. Put a test lamp on it and switch the key to "run." Work the AC/ heater controls to select AC, make sure the temp control is "cold" and if you don't get power, jumper around what you are calling "a cylinder" which is the low pressure switch

440roadrunner

That IS the radio noise suppression cap/ condenser but it belongs on the POSITIVE side of the coil not the neg. The case (cylinder) is indeed grounded to a mounting bolt, usually at or near the coil mount bracket

440roadrunner

Sorry, me neither

74Runneer

Thanks 440! Im thinking that red wire with the eyelet might be the aftermarket tach thats in it. I followed the negative wire back and thats all good.

That radio noise suppression cap belongs on the pos side of the coil??!!

74Runneer

This is a picture from about a year ago. The wire from the ac looks like it does go to that brownish wire going to this.

Is this right?

440roadrunner

Yes.

Think of the neg. side like this. Originally, in a breaker points system, the distributor had a SIMILAR cap inside the distributor. In reality, this cap (condenser back then) SHOULD be a specific value (microfarads) to match the characteristics of the coil. In the older books, there used to be photos of pitted points. If the points pitted on the ground side, the cap was ( forget big or small) the wrong value, and if pitted on the "hot" side, the value was wrong towards the opposite way

Obviously, adding a radio cap to the NEG terminal would INCREASE this value quite possibly more than double!!!

The Mopar system actually has a cap inside the box which replaces what used to be in the distributor. You would not want to install a huge additional cap to the neg coil terminal.

440roadrunner

I would guess so. That's easy to check now that I think. Pull the connector off the low pressure switch on your AC receiver, and just check that one or the other of the wires on the connector goes to the mystery wire coming out of the harness. I'm sure it does, and it should go to the compressor.

Normally, there would be a quick connect there, not a butt splice.