The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay HEI distributor wiring

I'm putting an HEI distributor in my 54 235. It has plug in wiring that I'll need to wire directly but I'm not sure which wire goes where.

This should help figure the wires you need.
http://devestechnet.com/Home/HEIgnition

Thanks but that is much more information than I need. The Dizzy has 2 wires, red and brown with a connector on the end which I need to remove and I don't know where the wires go.

One is for a tachometer and the other is for the wire coming from the ignition switch. Most GM HEI caps are embossed with "IGN" and "TACH".

OK, so I now know the wires go on the coil terminals. One wire is orange and the other is brown but nothing iin the instructions or any diagram I can find indicates which goes to + and which goes to -. Got everything else hooked up but don't want to start it till I'm sure. It's a rebuilt GM distributor designed for the 54 chevy truck and came from NAPA (48-1692)

There was no HEI designed for a 1954 235. I looked up NAPA 481692 and saw a pic of an HEI designed for '70s GM vehicles. It can be modified to fit a 235 but is not going to fit right out of the box.

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/C...-w-Module-Remfd/_/R-NRD481692_0333016934

As cletis posted, where does NAPA indicate it works on a 1954 235? (presumably converted to a 12v electrical system)?

I'm swapping in an HEI on my '65 really soon. I assume your truck has a 12v system but the points distributor gets reduced to 6v. If that's the case, run a 10 or 12 gauge wire from a keyed source such as the ignition switch or fuse panel, etc. and that's it. If you're wanting to run a tach, run a wire to the "Tach" terminal on the coil. Of course you'll need to wire the rest of the tach, but that I'm sure you already knew If you already have a tach installed, just run the existing tach wire to the "Tach" terminal on the coil. Don't forget to re-gap your plugs to 0.045.

Since I am not familiar with anything older than '56, I assumed the '54 was 12 volt. Being the curious person that I am I had to research it and found out there are 12 volt conversions for them. When did vehicles switch from 6 volt to 12 volt? The '56 Chevy I had in high school was 12 volt and I am not aware if it had been converted from 6 volt, since I got the car from my mom.

Chevrolet trucks changed to 12v at the model change in 1955 second series (Task Force trucks). 1955 first series Advance-Design trucks were 6v.