I have a 71 cutlass with points changing to hei distributor,need help on the wires from old coil, do I seperate the twowires on the old coil, black and white which is joined together on the same turminal, of the old coil, do I seperate and put white wire as + and the black wire as- on the new hei is that all need help please and is that all to adding a heI distributor Edited by: hvpq

All you need for the HEI is good power from the ignition. Test the wires that you have and see if they get power when the key is turned on.

More than that, it needs to be a FULL 12 volt wire. That era of GM car had a resistor wire running to the coil, giving you only around 8 volts. A wire from the starter would give the full 12 volts, but only as long as the starter was engaged. The HEI needs 12 volts all the time the engine is running.


Running a wire from the IGN terminal on the fusebox is a good way, but I found some voltage drop through the 30 year old wiring and switches.


I just did a column for our local Oldsmobile Club newsletter on this exact subject. You can find it in our September newsletter here:


http://southtexasoldsmobileclub.com/news.htm


The column is called "Under the hood" and is on page 1.


Let me know if anything is unclear.


C.J.Edited by: texasred