Thread: HEI ignition for a 283

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Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Say what? Whoever told you that was pulling your leg. With the wire disconnected there will be minimal current flow, but there will definitely be a voltage drop.

Yeah, when in the "Ohm's" mode the multi-meter puts it's internal battery voltage through the component being measured, and meters the drop accordingly. Mine uses a 1.5V AAA battery for voltage source.

Ted - can you explain why I will need new plug wires? Is there that much more power going from the distrib to the plugs? Do I need a certain type or thickness of plug wire?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rspears

Yeah, when in the "Ohm's" mode the multi-meter puts it's internal battery voltage through the component being measured, and meters the drop accordingly. Mine uses a 1.5V AAA battery for voltage source.

And when the meter is in the DC voltage range the meter will supply the load

[QUOTE=hpcbmw;477887]Ted - can you explain why I will need new plug wires? Is there that much more power going from the distrib to the plugs? Do I need a certain type or thickness of plug wire?

If you have more than 500 ohms on any wire I'd replace them all. Taylor makes a good inexpensive set of wires and there are others, but I'd stay away from Accell.

Day..

With wire disconnected there will not be a current flow. Not minimal, not at all. No current flow equals no voltage drop means you will measure source voltage as the meter gives 20 meg ohms resistance to circuit.

When you switch to ohms, yes the meter provides the voltage but now you are measuring resistance not volts.

If you want to see if it is a resistive feed, check voltage at the coil. If you get full source voltage ( or close ) then it's not a resistive wire. If you get significantly below source voltage, then the feed wire is resistive, providing voltage drop WHEN CURRENT IS FLOWING. Again, voltage drop across a resistor is a result of current flow. Because the meter isolates the circuit with 20 meg ohms, there is essentially no current. Or you can argue that indeed there will be current, and as a series circuit the voltage will drop across the larger resistance, IE the 20 meg ohms of the meter.

And no, my leg wasn't pulled in my three year electronics technology course.

the dist. end of the conventional plug wires are male termination and the hei are female so if you order from summit order the 116.91 set and you will be ok as far as the input wire is concerned there is two types one uses a ballast resistor the other uses a nichrome wire witch is a resistor wire I have never seen one that uses both so if yours has a ballast resistor just remove it and you should be fine if you have battery voltage at the wire when the key is on .....ted

Thanks Ted, I'll order plug wires when I order the HEI distrib. I've got a ballast in my wiring, so I'll just bypass that. I'm nstalling an Edelbrock carb this weekend, then will buy the HEI and plug wires on my next paycheck.