How many wires go TO the coil?
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How many wires go TO the coil?
When I pulled my wiring out I forgot how many wires I had going to my coil. Obviously there is the one going to the cap on the distributor, and the 2 coming from the ignition module. I have another wire going to my autometer tach from C-. Is there supposed to be a switched 12v wire going to C+ as well? That would mean 2 wires to C+ and 2 to C- in my case? I don't remember pulling that many wires off of it, but my wiring was a mess and spliced several times when I got the car so maybe they were combined or something. 
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 43,187
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From: Littleton, CO USA
Car: 82 Berlinetta/57 Bel Air
Engine: L92/LQ4 (both w/4" stroke)
Transmission: 4L80E/4L80E
Axle/Gears: 12B-3.73/9"-3.89
What kind/type of distributor and coil are we talking about here?
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Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 7,072
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From: Philly, PA
A lage cap HEI is actually 3 on the plug going to the module and 2 on the outside row to the vehicle's wiring harness.
I suggest you look at how a stock coil hooks up as your starting point. You'll see that both of the power leads to the coil share a connection to 2 of the wires going down to the module (the third is the ground connection to the module which I doubt you'll be using with a remote-mount canister-style coil).
As you look straight on at the square part of the cap where the connections are I'll see if I can describe the connections....
Along the back row of connections left-to-right (to the module):
Coil to module '-' connection, coil ground, coil to module '+' connection
The front 2 connections left-to0-right (to the stock wiring harness):
TACH connection, 12V+ connection
The TACH and coil to module '-' connections are directly linked to eachother and to the stock coil's '-' side wire (they all share a common connection on a stock coil's '-' side lead)
The 12V+ and coil to module '+' connections are also directly linked to eachother and to the stock coil's '+' side wire (they all share a common connection on the stock coil's '+' side lead).
You are going to have to electrically duplicate this somehow with your external coil. I can think of several ways to do this, some cleaner than others. For sure, somewhere, you'll have 2 wires going to the same connection points since they are shared with both the module and the vehicle's wiring harness connections. Using the terminals on the coil itself would probably be the easiest place to do this rather than trying to use the (now largely useless) terminals in the stock distributor cap.
I suggest you look at how a stock coil hooks up as your starting point. You'll see that both of the power leads to the coil share a connection to 2 of the wires going down to the module (the third is the ground connection to the module which I doubt you'll be using with a remote-mount canister-style coil).
As you look straight on at the square part of the cap where the connections are I'll see if I can describe the connections....
Along the back row of connections left-to-right (to the module):
Coil to module '-' connection, coil ground, coil to module '+' connection
The front 2 connections left-to0-right (to the stock wiring harness):
TACH connection, 12V+ connection
The TACH and coil to module '-' connections are directly linked to eachother and to the stock coil's '-' side wire (they all share a common connection on a stock coil's '-' side lead)
The 12V+ and coil to module '+' connections are also directly linked to eachother and to the stock coil's '+' side wire (they all share a common connection on the stock coil's '+' side lead).
You are going to have to electrically duplicate this somehow with your external coil. I can think of several ways to do this, some cleaner than others. For sure, somewhere, you'll have 2 wires going to the same connection points since they are shared with both the module and the vehicle's wiring harness connections. Using the terminals on the coil itself would probably be the easiest place to do this rather than trying to use the (now largely useless) terminals in the stock distributor cap.
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