Wiring my '34 Plymouth

I'm going to gut up and wire my Plymouth. I know I will need some advice. I wired my '58 Chevy about 10 years ago. That wasn't too bad because I was just replacing wires for a mostly stock setup. This time I'm starting from scratch with only a vague recollection of what I did back then. The stakes are higher this time so I better have a good plan before I start cutting and routing wires.

I got an 18 circuit set up from Hot Rod Wires. I mounted the fuse block under the dash high up on the firewall. The wires are GM color coded. The first bundled set of wires to install is for the engine harness. This is where I will start. I've got a 354 Hemi with a Mopar Performance electronic ignition, GM one wire alternator, and a remote starter solenoid. The Hot Rod Wires instructions are pretty general and don't really specify how to integrate some of the components of my ignition so I thought it would be wise to make a wiring diagram. I've attached the PDF for the experts to scrutinize.

I'm green when it comes to this, but I'm willing to learn and share. I hope to get advice from the HAMB community and maybe that will help others too. I will try to update this as I wire the entire car.

At this stage, just wiring the engine ignition, I have a coulpe questions for the experts.
1. The Pink wire from the Hot Rod Wires fuse block is supposed to go to the battery terminal of the HEI distributor. I am connecting the Pink to the Blue lead that comes from my Mopar HEI control unit. I think this gives me the full battery voltage when the ignition is key on. Does this sound right?
2. The Mopar Performance kit comes with a ballast resistor. I've read that HEI units don't need this or do need this, depending on the application. I just want to make sure that I am wiring it right. I have one side of the ballast resistor wired to both the starter side of the solenoid and the positive post of the coil. The other side of the resistor goes to the ignition side of the solenoid, the HEI control unit, and the pink wire from question 1 above.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tom

 

For Father's Day I gave me some garage time.

I've been running wire for the ignition per the wiring diagram I made. I've been trying to keep the wire bundles tidy with zip ties. The plan is to solder all terminal connections and apply heat shrink tubing. I did a **** splice with a crimp connection only on the battery wire with the fusible link off the solenoid about a week ago. I've felt bad about it ever since. So today I tore it apart and did a soldered **** splice with heat shrink tape. My soldering is looking better.

I ended up sending the pink lead from the fuse block to the ignition (R) terminal on the solenoid. I'm still not sure about the whole ballast resistor business.

Here are some pictures of the fuse block and the engine control unit under the dash, the remote starter solenoid on the outside foot board next the steering column, and the battery wire from the solenoid to the fuse block with a better **** splice.

 

It's been a few week but I finally got a little bit of garage time today!!! So where did I leave off?

I finally got the ignition switch mounted under the dash. It's a simple Summit keyed ignition with 4 posts on the back - battery, starter, ignition, and accessory. The Hot Rod wires instruction are written for a GM keyed column and connectors. I ***ume that I can combine accessory and battery lines on my four post set-up that were on separate connectors on the GM setup.

I have wired all of the engine components and ignition switch then energized the system by running jumpers from the battery (tested 11.8v) to the battery post on the remote solenoid and grounding the other to the block to test how things were going. When I turn the key to the start position the starter engages but it remains on even after I return the key to the on position or even turn the key off. I think the starting solenoid is staying on. What am I doing wrong?

I have attached an updated .pdf of how I have wired the engine and ignition. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Tom

 

A big thank you to the tech support at Hot Rod Wires! I sent an e-mail about my problem and got a call back from Bill right away. He suggested I check out some of the specific connections at the solenoid. I worked on it this morning and I think I got the 'S' and 'R' terminals backwards on the solenoid. When I disconnected all of the ignition components and tested the starter only the starter engaged when the key was in the on position. When I reversed the wires at the solenoid the starter engaged when the key was turned all the way to the start position. Probably a bush league mistake on my part.

The solenoid 'S' and 'R' wasn't labeled and the instructions from Summit says you can hook up the battery lead to either end but I guess the relationship of the two smaller terminals depends on the manufacturer and wasn't clear in the Summit instructions.

So the good news is I got the starter wired correctly. The bad news is the starter just spins freely instead of engaging the flywheel.

The silence is deafening in here!

 

Hang in there! Keep writing! I have to break down and do the wiring on my 34 Plymouth as well. I am thinking of making some bulkhead connector in the bottom corner of the driver side of the body, so that I have a quick disconnect should I ever need to lift the body off again. I am going with the 3 wire alternator though.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4721901#post4721901

 

Thanks for the encouragement! I didn't realize the limitation on the 1 wire alternator. Right now I've got the alt tucked away on the lower drivers side. I've got a Hot Heads timing cover so I wonder how much trouble it is to get lower mounts for a three wire like yours.