Adventures Under the Hood

Factory Ignition

The factory ignition setup looks like this.

The computer is between the distributor and the ignition module. This allows it to:

• Know the engine is running.
• Determine engine RPM.
• Control timing.
• By monitoring the 4" and 10" vacuum switches, determine how far the throttle plate is open.
• Use this information to tweak the carburetor mixture by moving the metering pins.

In order to rewire the ignition to a pre-1983 state (eliminating the computer), the violet and orange wires from the distributor must be cut, and the orange wire from the computer to the ignition module too. Trace this wire carefully, as there are at least two orange wires in that bundle and you don't want to cut the wrong one.

Notice the violet wire from the ignition module goes into the connector, but doesn't come out the other side.

The module is under the washer reservoir, bolted to the fender.

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