your wire going to the switched side of the solinoid is not right. there should only be two wires on the positive side of the coil. the one from the pertronics and the wire that comes from the ignition switch. to test the coil you need to use the ohm setting on you multimeter. with all the wires off the coil you want to mesure the resistance between the + and the - posts, then between the + and the center were the high voltage coil wire goes. they both should be in the thousands in there resistance readings. if they are open then the coil is bad. leaving 12 volts going to a coil constantly will cause it to over heat and melt the insulation on the internal wires.
the selonoid wire is coming from the starter side of the selonoid and the reason i ran that wire is because it would start and go dead as long as u held the key switch on it would stay running soon as u let of go dead i ran the wire drom starter side of selonoid and fixed the problem os so i thought
that shows that the wire from your ignition switch is the wrong one. there should be a wire that stays hot when cranking. running the wire to the starter post on the solinoid will allow the power from the ignition switch to goto the starter motor. this should create all kinds of problems. you can trigger the coil by providing it power to the positive post, put the coil wire on the coil and let the other end dangle about 1/2 inch above some metal on the motor. then put a pice of wire on the neg. post and then just touch it to some metal on the motor then take it off. when you take off the ground wire a spark should jump the gap at the coil wire.
The wire coming from the solenoid is the 12v during start wire for the coil during start, voltage should be present on the wire from the ignition switch also but drops to around 9-10 volts when running. this is done to provide the most available voltage during cranking, but save the points when running by dropping the voltage. the red and green wire from inside goes through a resistor wire to drop the voltage and is located in the main harness coming from the ignition switch. those wires are usually tied together in the engine harness or at the coil connector + lead. The resistor could burn out if this wire ever was grounded(possibly by shorting the coil) because it becomes the fuse if the wire from the switch is shorted to ground. Unplug the coil and see if voltage is present at the coil, then plug it in and test it again with the coil operating to see if it can supply voltage with the circuit loaded. hope this helps BTW: there are 2 small wires on the solenoid; one is red with blue and is the wire from the switch that triggers the solenoid to operate the starter, the other one is red and green and is hot only when the solenoid is energized with the starter operating (hot in start) that wire is actually connected to the big lug that goes to the starter and is de-energized when the key is released.
i went outtoday and looked at the wiring harness that comes out of the firewall it has 4 wires connected to the female end rubber plug here is the colors best i could tell one side across tothe other red with white stripe then white with red stripe red with green stripe and then a brown wire.i had the red wire wih the white strip hooked to the coil ad this wa the wire that would start te car but lost power and shutthe car off once u let off the key switch .can anyone help me with determing what wire or wires i need for the positive side of the coil.The male end plug has a thick pink looking wire and if u look close as u plug it into the female end it seems that the red wire with green stripe and the solid brown wire connect together with the pink wire on the other side .Hope his makes sense .HELP Appreciated
i almost forgot to mention the brown wire looks as if its been hot before and melted in spots cant be good i dont know i its something i did or something previously done beofre i got the car .I peeled back the black tape to look at it further
so i need someone to try cranking the car while i check each wire with the test light to see which one stil lights up.?if this is yes .Will there only one wire to light up while doing this
if you can put the light where you can see when cranking then you should be able to do it your self. a friend does make it easyer. i just dont know how many wires will have power during both crank and run postion on the ignition switch. you will find out when you do it.
ok just went out and tested all 4 wires with the light while cranking the car over with the key switch all of them still lite up except for the red with white stripe and this is the wire i had running to the coil so i know its the wrong wire .so what now i have 3 wires to choose from...lol
the red/white is coolant temp switch, white/red goes to the oil switch, red/green is the coil power wire(hot in start/run) and the brown I'm not sure but it might be the ac power wire and/or idle kicker if it has one. The red/green I'm sure is your coil + tho. Single wire from the distributor goes to the negative side of the coil. Might help to get back to stock and then rewire the Petronix. This is the way miy original harness was wired. Just be careful and don't directly short anything.
Im following this thread... My 72 Grabber JUST started doing the same about 20 mins ago. Thank god Im at home... Chaz.
