1985 Camaro....I had a bad wire or I thought it looked bad so I cut it out and replaced it. There was a small round looking thing on the wire...I'm guessing a resistor....but I was thinking it was a fusible link. soo, long story short, a wire from the alternator pigtail to the distributor results in not being able to shut the car off.

What should be between the pigtail and the distributor?

 

not sure will bump for you, hope you get a answer!

 

Tanks for the bump. It's really got me kind of puzzled. I'm not sure what the little round thing is. My wife calls it a "little round thingy" but, for a man, I'd like to say "little round thingy" isn't in my vocabulary.

 

is it a small round cylinder with a mounting bracket If so, it's a capacitor to reduce RF noise or if it's in the tach wire (tan I think) it's to clean up the tach signal. I have removed them and never seen a difference. Whats the wire color

 

I'll take a picture tonight...but when I remove it, I can't shut the car off. Strange huh??

 

How long does it keep running? Some applications with an MSD or similar ignition box need a diode to keep the engine from running on. Sounds like that's what you have there.

 

That's when you've got a permanent magnet fan motor and an external regulator.

There's no factory wiring directly from the alternator to the distributor.

 

Who knows what someone did to his car, the fact that without the gizmo the engine has run on sure means something doesn't it....

 

Ok guys here it is. Without it, the car does more than runon...it just runs. If anyone knows what it is a link would be great. The wires coming out of it are kind of loose.

 

That's a diode, and someone has horribly butchered your poor car.

 

Suggestions? I know enough to be dangerous. Is a diode a diode or are there diffrrent ones? Also should it not be there? I'm all about doing things right....masters...please teach me

 

It's impossible to know exactly what they've done to it to know how to make it work properly. I'd tear out all the wiring and redoing it correctly.

 

That's what I would do too. What kind of alteranator is on it? A std. internally regulated delco unit or sometthing else???

 

Obviously.
No different than having the battery connected direct to the dist without the Ign switch
Alt is making power which means dist has power full time

If it is a diode, ( which only allows power to flow in one direction )
possible some bubba has used the coil feed as the excitor signal needed by the Alt for it to start making power.
That signal is usually supplied from the Ign through through the idiot light on your dash

What terminal on the Alt does the wire come from?
See
http://www.alternatorparts.com/cs130_sbpage3.htm

 

I had a hard time with the schematics you linked me to. That is one thing I've never been good at. So, I attempted to draw a picture on the computer. Don't laugh!!

This is from memory as my son is at work and he has the car. But what I tried to capture was a wire coming from the positive of the battery coming to the batt post on the Alternator. Then from the pigtail of the alternator, looking from the back of the car forward, the wire on the left comes back to the distributor (this is the one with the diode), the wire on the right drops down to the battery post of the alternator (which kind of confused me a little) I will take pictures again later on and try to post them tonight.

It's been 15+ years since my shade tree mechanic days....after reading your posts this is what I think has happened. Electronic ignition module has been removed and replaced by the energy from the alternator/battery. (Is that even possible)

 

Here's some pictures.

And thanks guys for all of the advice!! I love these forums!!!

 

Typical Alt plug wiring

 

Umm...That's not what I've got installed.

 

Other way around.
The Alt requires voltage on terminal L , the brown wire ,as shown in plug diagram above in order
for it to start making power

Bubba has taken that power supply FROM the coil terminal of the dist.
The diode prevents power from the battery going back to the coil when you turn the Ign off
and keeping the engine running as you found out when you removed the diode

Ultimately you need to find the original wire from the Ign switch so it works as stock

 

Sorry , yours appears to be a earlier SI type Alt

The B terminal performs the same function as the L terminal as shown in the diagram for CS type Alt fitted to later cars