I have an 83 camaro that originally had cross fire injection and now is carburetored with a 350. I have a problem when I crank it it will start then dies instantly. I replaced the carb, distributor, fuel, plugs, verified the grounds and 12v to the distributor. I just replaced the ignition switch as well because it seemed like it would run if I held the key to the crank position for a sec after it actually cranked. When the key is turned to the position just before the crank I have no dash lights but the tach indicator will jump. When cranking I get the emergency brake light and thats about it. I'm trying to home in on the cause of this. I did repair some wiring under the hood when I got the car due a fire. I was wondering about the black wire running from the alternator. It seems I connected it to a solid brown one leading into the firewall and to the fusebox. I think the wiring diagram for this year shows it as a brown/white wire for the alternator which I don't seem to see going into the firewall. If I screwed this up would this cause the engine to die immediately? I have pulled all the fuses and they looked ok. Any ideas?

 

Ok, I see a brn/white wire from the fuse box to the terminal at the firewall but still not one on the outside??? Am I missing something here? I haven't exposed the wiring in the other plug next to this that leads to the headlights but I wouldn't think the alternator wire would be routed in that direction. I do realize the alternator would have to take over after engine starts to keep it running so if someone who is more knowledgeable than me (and that's probably everyone on this forum) could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

 

 

ok got her to crank and run a little. I checked fuses and pushed them back in. Then she wanted to run for awhile. The voltage dropped from 12 to around 9 after it cranked up though. Now maybe i need to adjust the new carb and tweak the timing since i installed new distributor and coil.