Distributor resister in harness?

[eoseitz]

I was wondering if anybody knew why someone would run a hot wire from the battery to the distributor? I have to throw a toggle switch before I start the car. The guy I purchased the car off of years ago said something about there being a resister in the stock harness. He switched out the points distributor for an HEI and said it needed to come straight from the battery to get the full current. Is this true? I'd love to do away with the cheap looking toggle switch and go back to just turning the key.

I'm about to buy a wiring harness from either corvette central or full throttle corvette. Full throttle is slightly cheaper, but I know corvette central has a better name and I've dealt with them several times. Full throttle is an ebay store. Are they legit?

 

[bill81vette]

the toggle switch in the hot to the distributor,could be a power kill switch to prevent the vette from being stolen.
kill the power, it doesn't start and it can't be hot wired.

 

[6880 Mike]

...Is this true?...

No. There is no resistor in the stock wiring harness for the distributor circuit. There is also no connection for the HEI in the stock 74 harness. Sounds like the PO needed 12V for the HEI and was not quite sure where to get it.

Are you converting back to the stock points tach drive distributor?

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

No. There is no resistor in the stock wiring harness for the distributor circuit.

There's no 'resistor' per se, but the feed to the coil is a resistor wire. '74 was the last year with a points type distributor. Typically this resistor wire is bypassed and a source of switched 12V from under the hood is used for HEI ignition or one of the electronic conversion units.

 

[eoseitz]

That's exactly what he did. The car won't start if it switch isn't on. I switched to an MSD tachdrive style distributor. Will a replacement harness have a resistor wire? I'm assuming it will so that it is to spec. Can you suggest a wire tied into the key that I can splice into to get 12v? I'd really like to get my engine bay cleaned up so I can start my engine swap. I'm swapping out the 76 350 camaro engine :ugh the previous owner put in it for a built 355.

 

[lars]

A replacement '74 harness will have the correct resistor wire in the coil "+" circuit. If you intend to keep the HEI, just run a 12-gauge wire from a fusebox "IGN" terminal to the HEI "BAT" terminal. This will make the ignition work normally with the key.