Hello Triumphant types,
In a message dated 95-09-27 04:03:49 EDT, Tony writes:
-[ Historical information snipped ]-
>Needless to say, I have a few questions. Some DPO in her past history
>considered spraying everything in the engine compartment blue as a tune up.
>Blue cables. belts, sparkplugs, carbs, wiring... which is the first
>problem.. most of the wires are now color-coded BLUE! I can peel back the
>harness taping to reveal most of the coding luckily.
>
Sorry to hear about your wiring blues <g>.
>Question #1 (finally)
>
>There are two loose connectors near the left side of the block...nothing
>matches them..any idea where they go?
>
If these wires exit the harness at the same point as your alternator wires
(brown)
and temp sending unit wire, They are for a <drive resistor>. You don't need
them anymore unless you want to revert back to the 'Opus' original equipment
electronic ignition (bad move). The drive resistor would have been an
aluminum finned
power resistor originally mounted to the back of the air pump bracket. My
'77
electrical schematic shows the drive resistor (#12) with a white/blue wire on
one
end and a white wire & green wire going to the other end. My '78 car(s) have
a white wire on one end and a white/blue wire (singular) on the other end.
Yours might just be blue :-( You should also have another 'unused' (3-pin)
connector
with 4 wires going to it. This exits the wiring bundle just a little closer
toward
the bulkhead (where the oil pressure sensor wire breaks out) This connector
would have went to the 'Opus' ignition unit which was an integral part of the
distributor. One of these wire can be utilized when fitting a points type
distrib.
>#2
>This '78 has breaker points..
>when did they first use electonic ignition?
>
As early as 1975 according to my books, but not my car. (anyone?)
Does anyone still know of a *working* stock 'Opus' Ignition?
>#3
>The tach doesn't work.. I
>tried the spare tach (this baby came with SPARES!) but no luck.. I then
>spotted a loose wire in the general area of the coil and noted there were no
>extra wires on the coil for a tach tie-in but there was a open spade
>lug...tried it..no luck.. Does the tach tie in to the coil and if so, what
is
>the color code of the wire?
>
It is one of two identical <white/grey stripe> wires going to the same
terminal on the
- side of the coil. These are shown as <white/grey stripe> &<White/black
stripe>
in my '77 wiring diagram. the + side of the coil should have a
<white/yellow>
wire connected at least. (wiring diagram agrees here)
>#4
>The ignition resistor (I assume) on the
>firewall has a wire going to it from the started solenoid hot lug.. nothing
>hooked up to the other lug. I read something here about 12v coils and
>not-12v coils.. I am guessing that this car had a <12v coil and possibly
>swapped in a 12v.. would that preclude needing the resistor?
>
Originally your car had (has) a ballast 'resistance wire' carefully concealed
within its innards. This may or may not still be active. The resistor
arrangement
you mention sounds like a 'PO Bodge' to me. If you've been on the list for a
week
I assume you know what that is. :-(
The original coil is a plain unpainted aluminum coil with a label warning to
use
only with a ballast resistor.
>I bought a
>Haynes book, but so far the color codes on the chart are less than a 100%
>match with what I've got...
>
You mean they're not all blue on the chart? :-)
(sorry I've been dissecting a Spit motor & I am weak :-)
Have fun,
Bob (still wondering if you can weld a broken crank)
75, 78, 78 Spitfires
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