[bobby r. smith]

I am installing a 350 v8 in a 41 chev p/u does anyone have info on basic wiring to get the engine running. All help appreciated. BRS>

[bullheimer]

i'm doing my 56 chev right now. battery to key, ing. on key to ballast resistor and/or the coil.as well as the alternator, which i think also has a hot to it. the ballast resistor has me confused because the ign. goes to it and also to the accessory terminal of the key so i don't really know how it works, i always thought it was just in series btwn the key and the coil.
as anybody can tell i am totally f-up as well so HELP!! And i teach house wiring!!! UUUGGGGH! I could do this w/o a ballast but my mallory uni-lite demands use of one

[willys36@aol.com]

The ballast resistor is necessary on 12 volt systems since point distributors are designed to run on 6 volts. Wire the resistor in series to the coil + terminal for normal operation. Some cars are wired to put the full 12V to the coil just for starting. To do this there is a separate wire that goes from a special terminal to the + side of the coil and is only energized during cranking. Once the coil is de-energized, the terminal is dead and the resistor feeds lower voltage. Most peope ignore this bypass wire since a good engine and electrial suystem will function just fine with the resistor full time.

[bullheimer]

aahhhh sooooo, so i just run my wire from the IGN.terminal on my switch to one side of the BR and from the opposite side straight to the coil, so does it matter which side of the BR i take to the alternator, my alt. requires two wires now, and so where does the other one come from, straight from the battery? i had my alt. converted to a single wire alt. and some *** holes who changed engines a(never again let anyone work on your car and do something you will No doubt do a better job on) shorted something in it out so that it required two wires from then on. they had a hot wire grounded to the alt. frame because they left off an insulating washer. have any idea what they did? don't forget, if you reply, to tell me which BR terminal to take to the alt. thanks a bunch. sam

[willys36@aol.com]

A resistor is just a resistor. All it does is generate heat and consume voltage (a light bulb is a resistor on steroids!). doesn't matter how you hook it up. Send me your email address and I'll send a scan of Ford and Chevy engine wiring diagrams. Sorry, I don't know what they do to make an alternator single wire. I'm a hot rodder not a street rodder so I don't mind having an extra wire or two with plastic electric tape unravelling on my engine. I imagine they put a diode in the line to prevent discharging the battery with the engine off when the second wire is connected to battery terminal but haven't studied it out. If so, that's an expensive diode. One from Radio Shack that could handle output from 10 alternators would cost a buck.