Starting equipment was all acquired from salvage yards, with the exception of new rotor, cap, plugs, and plug wires. Total cost of acquisition broke down to just about $90, half of this being in the plug wires alone.

Salvage included:
(from 80-something Wagoneer)
Motorcraft Distributor
Duraspark module
various essential harness pigtails

(from early 90's Merc. Cougar)
TFI coil and bracket
distributor tower adapter
old rotor and cap (for fitment)

The first task, which happened to be the easiest, was modifying the TFI coil bracket so it fit nicely in the stock mounting location. This was done with simple aid from two holes drilled strategically in the bottom base of the bracket to allow the stock can-coil mounting bolts to be used.

 

Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of the previous wiring setup, 'inventive' splices, wire corrosion, split insulation, etc.

I removed the old Prestolite ICM and, with the aid of a few new holes in the inner fender, mounted the Duraspark in the same place. I dabbed a little paint on the new holes prior to mounting as a little anti-rust insurance.

 

What the heck is this thing, anyway? External regulator, maybe?

(BTW, I'm referring to the gold/black box on the back side of the fender well, right below the battery)

 

Yep thats the voltage reg for that motorcraft alt you have.

 

Great... well, that answers that.

I wired everything up as per a nifty wiring diagram I found on http://www.trailhed.com, made sure it still cranked right, static timed, installed the plugs, and it cranked right up and ran... of course as I mentioned, I had for some reason gotten the wrong rotor and the thing was missing and cross-firing like mad. Nonetheless, I had spark and gas and all seemed well.

Now for the problems.

I got the correct rotor yesterday. My battery had completely drained over the night. This was a problem before the upgrade that I had attributed to possible bad wiring throughout the Jeep... I figured it might be fixed with the replacement of so much wiring around the ignition. This does not appear to be the case.

Second, after charging the battery up, I turned it over and got no spark at all. Nothing. I suppose this means going back over all the wiring and making sure nothing zapped itself, but otherwise I'm stumped as to why it stopped working. As I understood wiring, the electricity will go where it's supposed to unless there's a physical break in the line, and that doesn't readily appear to be the case.

Well, aside from wiring up a tractor reverse light, this is the first automotive wiring project I've ever done. I don't feel too bad, considering it tried to work right away, I just hope I didn't break it in the tinkering that followed.

 

How about a one wire hook-up, GM HEI conversion distributor. Completely waterproof with an internal coil. Works awesome on my AMC 360

 

Hey JoeyCJ5, how do you vent a fully waterproof diff cap?

also how much did it cost?

 

Nah. I just wasn't in the mood. Also, this was the cheaper and more well-documented option, with all the parts readily available via salvage.

 

Matt
I can answer that if you want to know!!!!!!!

 

Panty hose over the vent hole?

I don't treat my Jeep like a submarine anyway. The vent on the Ford cap is more than good enough to keep out the water.

 

IM not a huge HEI fan, even on a Chevy.

I was just trying to see what was up with the newguy with a AMC/GM/HEI

GP'n, shoot me your vent idea!

 

I re-read and it seems its a GM cap. that means a slide door.. my idea won't work there. But for all others you drill a small hole in top of cap and silicone a poly tub into it. take it to the air filter and attach it to a smaal drilled hole there. Take it one step further and silicone an 1/8" poly tube about 1" out of top of cap and the same amount on air cleaner. Then take a vacuum tube from one to the other I have this set up on mine and works ok then you can us an O-ring on the cap to seal it and grease the plug wires.

I guess you could use this with a GM cap if you sealed the slide door

 

only the early GM ( with points) used the slide door right?

that might be a really dumb question.
Ive never owned a GM with a distributer per se.

 

Well, checked everything out last night. Seems the old coil up and died. Probably didn't help that I inadvertently left the vehicle in the 'run' position for about 12 hours. I decided to not be such a cheap-ass and bought myself a new TFI coil.

Borrowing a tip from my father-in-law's Chilton manual for late 80's F-trucks, I gapped the plugs to .055.

That TFI setup is pretty damn impressive. It throws sparks like the Tinman in a microwave. It fired right up on the first crank, sounding all robust and meaty and macho like a V8 should instead of the sputtering, coughing mess of the tired old Prestolite (even with new plugs). My tach even worked right away. Seemed to rev easier... got it up to 4500, whereas before it would start to hiccup around 4000. I didn't go above that for fear of whatever one fears from revving too high. Whenever the weather gets warmer than your average well-digging witch's brazier, I'll have some fun with a road test.

Now it's just a matter of tweaking the carb mixture to take best advantage of the extra spark, fine-tuning the timing, and then onto my next winter project... whatever that is.