Hello guys,

In my zest to get my new to me 79 GS running I think I may have hurt something.On sunday I decided I would wire in the elctronic distributor from my 83 to the 79.I used wackyracers diagram of how to do this,and I am 99-100% sure I did everything right,but I have an issue.

I wired it up by splicing the wires that were on the two large ballast resistors together so that I would have power at the 83 ignition coils,and then ran 4 wires from the ignitors on the dist to the positive,and negative wires of the coils.I also had plans of running my 2nd gen alternator on the car as well,and I may still,but on sunday I just wanted to fire the car up so I used the stock alternator,and the external regulator.

I changed the oil in the engine,put in new coolant,and put a few gallons of gas in the tank,hoping to fire it up.

I put the key to the on position I went out to check the float bowls and such,and make sure I don't have any fuel leaks.I didn't see anything obvious.I then decided I was going to try to crank it even though I was worried about an engine that has been sitting so long.the engine is free turning though so I figured I would give it a whirl.

When I did this I noticed some smoke coming from the area of the voltage regulator.when I saw this I thought oh great I just smoked something,and in a panic I stopped right away,and disconnected the battery negative cable.I then unplugged the factory regulator,and removed the alternator,and the wiring I did on the elctronic dist,and called a friend to help me out in the wiring of the dist.He wanted to do it with a relay,and such from the begining,but I wanted to see if I could do it on my own,and I could/didn't want to wait for him to be free.

Do you guys think I maybe fried some wiring in the harness,or maybe it is just the regulator?Help me out here,I hope I didn't hurt my little yellow car.

Chris
79 GS
83 LE
74 RE/PU

 

if you saw smoke, then something fried.

 

If you have a local parts store like Advance or AutoZone, you can take the alternator and regulator there and have them checked. Most of your "Big" parts places have stuff to check those off the car. Hope this helps.

 

you shorted something out.

On SA altenator upgrade, you have to elimnate the external voltage regulator and have to run two jumper wires. I cant remember which wires but if you look in the archive, there is a thread about upgrading alternator.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guys.Last night when my friend came over to help me figure out the wiring we found what went up in smoke.The white wire on the voltage regulator was smoked up pretty good,but it seems fine in the harness itself.It was just melted on the short length from the regulator to the connector.I hope nothing else is bad.A continuity test on the white wire(I think it was ground)turned out fine,and the harness looked good on the outside.Maybe it was just a bad connection in the connector,and heated up.That is what I am hoping atleast.

Wacky,

We were going over the wiring diagrams in the FSM,and figuring out what we needed to do to make the 2nd gen alternator work in the car while allowing the GEN light,and the voltage gauge/tach to still work.It seems as though it was a little more than just running a few jumpers,but I am not sure really.The wiring diagram in the 79 FSM is a little tough to follow at times.We ended up using a relay to make the GEN light,and the voltage gauge work,and we probably could have finished it if we didn't run out of time,and male connectors to plug into the factor wiring harness to make this work.Hopefully within the next few days we can have it running.

Any suggestions as to how to go about starting it after it has been sitting so long?It is free spinning,and it seems as though the hand rotating compression test with the spark plugs out was good.I am just worried about oil,and such because I am sure it has drained down after this much time(5 years).

The PO always ran oil down the throat of the carb while it was running until it died before he stored it,and was meticulous about how he put it away for the winter,but I am worried I may hurt something.

Thanks again

Chris
79 Spark yellow GS(5/78)
83 LE parts car now
74 RE/PU thinking about selling it actually
92 Cummins

 

On SA and pre-RX-7 cars, I always place 2 jumpers on the external regulator plug. For the alternator side, on the 4-wire plug (IIRC), the white wire will trigger the alternator's Field Terminal. Alt light works and such. I cant give you further details as I havent been in my garage.

Now, for starting an engine from storage, pour a cap full of oil in each venturies, then handcrank it on a few minutes either on the main pulley or altenator pulley. Change the oil and prior to instaling the oil filter, be sure to fill up the oil filter with new oil (got to be quick in installing it or you will have an oil spill). Crank the motor wihout the spark plug wires until you get an oil pressure. Then replace the old spark plugs with new ones and start it.