distributor question
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 800
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From: Olive Branch, MS
Car: 1990 RS
Engine: 350
Transmission: TH-350
distributor question
ok , i have a vacuum advance distributor for my carb setup in my 90 camaro. i am not using any of the old wiring harness, as this is a mainly drag setup. on my dist. it has a plug that goes from module into the bottom of the dist., now the only thing left is spades, one for BATT and one for TACH. can i just run a wire from my batt straight to the BATT spade on the dist and one from the TACH spade to my aftermarket tach? i am eventually going to use a msd 6al, but right now i just want to get it running. also, when i do switch to msd, do i have to bypass the ign module? thanks in advance!!!
Supreme Member
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 1,386
Likes: 1
From: Tucson,AZ,USA
Car: Junk
Engine: Junk with nitrous
Transmission: Junk with gears
You can't run the "bat" terminal straight to the battery. It needs to be a 12 volt switched source. Run it off a wire that gets 12 volts with ignition on, and make sure its a nice thick wire, 10 guage or so.
Supreme Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,322
Likes: 1
From: Bloomingdale,IL
Car: 91 RS
Engine: 305 Tbi (L03)
Transmission: 700r4
The switch would work fine. You could wire the bat terminal straight to the battery but the car wouldnt shut off if you did that. You need three things for a car to start. You need to get rid of one of those three for it to shut off.
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,009
Likes: 5
From: Pitman, NJ
Car: '89 IROC-Z
Engine: Canfield 195 headed 358ci
Transmission: TH350, Art Carr 9.5"
Axle/Gears: 3.92 Dana 44
You should have kept track of the wires off the original distributor. One mine it was a tan wire for the tach and a semi-thick red wire for the batt. I just cut the ends off and spliced them to an HEI-style plug thingie. If you hooked the dist directly up to the battery you wouldnt be able to shut the car off.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 800
Likes: 0
From: Olive Branch, MS
Car: 1990 RS
Engine: 350
Transmission: TH-350
thanks guys, the car was gutted when i bought it, so i am just basically working from scratch here. i am running elec fan , dist, starter. should i use relays for all of these? i hope i can figure out the headlight and brake lights too, i do wanna drive it on the street sometimes as well. there is no fuse panel, so i am confused on wiring the lights, blnkers and brake lights. thanks again!!!
Supreme Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,743
Likes: 0
From: heartland
Car: 89rs (previous 2.8)
Engine: 406
Transmission: 700r4 (for now)
Originally posted by 88IROC350TPI
You should have kept track of the wires off the original distributor. One mine it was a tan wire for the tach and a semi-thick red wire for the batt. I just cut the ends off and spliced them to an HEI-style plug thingie. If you hooked the dist directly up to the battery you wouldnt be able to shut the car off.
You should have kept track of the wires off the original distributor. One mine it was a tan wire for the tach and a semi-thick red wire for the batt. I just cut the ends off and spliced them to an HEI-style plug thingie. If you hooked the dist directly up to the battery you wouldnt be able to shut the car off.
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