Ignition/Coil No Power, New harness

[Prime72]

Problem:  the ignition wire to the balast resistor (and then to pos coil) is only hot if cranking and disconnected. It's got nothing on run or when it's hooked up. Does this point to a short? Maybe an ammeter problem?

Background: Ive been working through installing the american autowire complete harness and it's been pretty smooth except for dealing with the voltage reg and ecu. There are no instructions for these components w the aaw harness but I think I have it figured out. I can detail if necessary but basically the new bulkhead has 2 wires for ignition, brown and pink, the pink is what I'm referring to above and for some reason the brown never goes hot. I have them routed to opposite sides of the balast resistor.  Fuses are good, brand new ignition switch. Starter relay gets power when it should.

Here are their wiring instructions, check out Engine Wire Harness pdf

http://www.americanautowire.com/kit-instructions/?s=510289

Thanks for any help. I just want to hear this thing run. Had it for almost a year and a half now

[dodj]

The brown should go hot through the ign sw. Check the connector at the base of the column. If the connector is good, your ign sw. isn't.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

The brown should go hot through the ign sw. Check the connector at the base of the column. If the connector is good, your ign sw. isn't.

     

If you turn the ignition switch to the "on" position, you should see battery voltage entering the ballast resistor.

[Prime72]

Thanks for the replies, I got out tonight to do some more testing and it turns out it's the new ignition switch I just put it. I accidentally flipped the key back to the ACC position and it started cranking so something is out of whack. I double checked the wiring diagram and I have the connector exactly like it shows. Could the ignition switch be out of alignment with the tumbler somehow to cause this? Or a faulty part? I haven't figured it out yet.

No power to brown wire in any position. Power to dark blue wire (pink) when cranking. Black and yellow ign switch wires are hot in the ACC and cranking position. Red is hot all the time as it should be. 

Last page shows the connection conversion between the ign switch and the new harness:
http://www.americanautowire.com/PDFLink/92969923%20510291%20IN%200.0.pdf

Of course I already put the lock plate back on so that's going to be fun. This car has fought me every step of the way but it's gonna start one of these days...

[tman]

Do you have the original wiring harness?  Compare both harnesses.  Wonder if wires were reversed at ignition switch?

[Prime72]

Took another look today and one strand of black wire made it's way into the yellow connector which was causing all of those issues. Now she's cranking and gettin spark and I even heard a couple explosions

But not enough gas is getting to the carb. I have a see-through in-line filter before the carb and I can see the pump moving some gas, should it be completely full (it's not)? Do I need to bleed it or anything? I have an edelbrock carb with electric choke but I don't know exactly what that does (it is hooked up, ground and 12v on ign). Finally, I have a new fuel sending unit (grounded and 1 power wire to it).

My main concern is that pulling the carb throttle doesn't seem to pull any gas at all. What would cause this?

I'm about to start my research but any insight would be greatly appreciated 

[Strawdawg]

can you pour some gas down a bowl vent tube to be sure you have gas in the bowl?  If the bowl has some fuel in it, the accelerator pump should spray when you open the throttle.

Or you can pour a small amount of gas into the carb and crank it to run a couple of seconds..that will usually fill the bowl--then you can see if you have an accelerator shot when you open the throttle

[burdar]

What ignition switch did you install?  The aftermarket ones have an extra black ground wire that the original ones didn't have.  That black wire goes into a slot in the steering column connector.  On the other side of that connector are two orange HOT wires.  That wire needs to be removed from the connector.

[Prime72]

Strawdawg, I looked through the carb's manual (Edel 1406) but did not see anything referenced as the bowl vent tube but I have tried poured some gas down both of the chambers with the butterfly valves and cranked and that hasn't affected anything. I'm not familiar with the accelerator pump but pulling the throttle seems to be doing little to nothing.

Could I be missing some vacuum lines?

And burdar, I installed one from Oreillys, not sure on the brand but it did use factory correct coloring. I think it did have that extra black ground the the column auto trans or something? Either way, it's cranking reliably and getting spark now 

[burdar]

Make sure that wire isn't plugged into the connector if there are powered wires on the other side.  There were on my 73.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

But not enough gas is getting to the carb. I have a see-through in-line filter before the carb and I can see the pump moving some gas, should it be completely full (it's not)?

My main concern is that pulling the carb throttle doesn't seem to pull any gas at all. What would cause this?

I have a clear plastic filter on my car. It's strange, sometimes I see some gas, sometimes not, but it is never full. I have a mechanical fuel pressure gauge installed after the filter that reads 6 PSI, so as long as I see 6 PSI, I'm good to go no matter what I see in the filter.

I'm A Holley carb guy, but you should see gas squirting down your carb throat when you pump the gas pedal. If not, a bad accelerator pump on the carb, or the cable to the carb isn't tight enough to activate the accelerator pump.  These are my best guesses...

[burdar]

It's hard to tell from your picture but it looks like the accelerator pump linkage is in the bottom hole on the arm.  If you put the linkage in one of the upper holes, you will get a bigger shot of fuel from the accelerator pump.

[Strawdawg]

It is normal to see air in the filter.  If you see gas in the filter, then it would appear the pump is working to some extent.

Now, it would be nice to know if gas got past the needle valve that the float controls and filled the bowls.  You can take a pair of pliers and tap on top of the bowl cover where the inlet is.  If the needle is stuck closed, that may open it allowing the bowl to be filled.

First tho, it should have cranked up and run after you put a little gas in the carb opening above the butterflies.  If it runs for a couple of seconds that should be enough to insure the pump is trying to push fuel into the carb and you should be able to see gas spurt out of the accelerator pump nozzles into the carb when you flip the throttle lever.

If you do not, then you either have a lack of fuel into the carb, stuck float needle, or a plugged up accelerator pump/jet passage.

[Prime72]

I have a new electrical problem. I stopped getting power from Ign1 to the pink wire. It is sending from the blue ign sw wire through the connector. So somewhere between the connector (I checked both sides) and the firewall side of the bulkhead there is a problem. Going to check the fuses. It's brand new wiring and bulkhead connections. All factory completed, not that they can't make a mistake.

The weird part is that I took a different 12v ignition feed and hooked it up to the balast resistor, got one fire, and now that connection is dead too. What would be doing that? I have a spare coil to try.

Strawdawg, thank you, I was doing some reading and I think my problem with gas was that  I didn't have enough in the tank. It was enough for the pump to pull but not the accel shot.  I put more in and I can hear and smell some gas being pumped in with the throttle. I will refer back to your post once I get the elec figured out.

burdar, thanks a lot for taking a look. I will definitely give that a try if I'm still having fuel problems.

MEK-Dangerfield, thank you for posting that information. It's good to know that an unfilled filter is okay.

[Strawdawg]

sounds like it pulled a slight bit in initially-hence your original popping, but did not get enuf in to fill the bowl...

Looks like the real problem is electrical at the moment....it's a simple circuit so it should not be hard to find out what is killing it.