The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Starter wiring on a '61 Apache

Is there any reason why the cloth-braided wh/red wire from the bulkhead connector to the starter is about 3ft long, when the distance between the two is about 1 ft? Does the length provide resistance? Also, why is the wire insulated with cloth-braid? Can I replace it with newer wiring? Gauge?

it's that long and cloth cuz someone replaced it with that ... the original wiring on a 61 would all be plastic covered and harness wrapped with tape, every wire is excatly long enough to neatly go where it belongs

Bill

I believe it is resistance wire & the length is important.

Is there another wire on that same starter solonoid post that goes to the coil? If so, then Wrenchbender has it right and it's long because it's the resistor wire feeding the coil from the run post on the ignition switch.

You can coil it up and tie-wrap it to make it look neater.

if there is a resistance wire on a 61 [is there? when did ign resistors disappear?], it'd go to the coil, not the starter

Bill

waldo53, yes there is another wire going to the coil. Although the wire is long, it was neatly wrapped in tape with all the other wires in the harness. I just noticed its length when I removed the tape to do some repair and cleanup on the harness. Here's some pix of the harness and a close up of the wire. It looks like resistance wire. I haven't yet followed the wire into the cab to see if there is a ballast resistor in line.

61 apache pix

As red58 said, normally that wh/red wire would run directly to the coil, but since you have another wire off that same starter post that goes to the coil, electrically it's the same thing.

I can't access your pics, it's asking for a password.

That braided wire IS the ballast resistor, you won't find one in the cab somewhere. I don't know why the designers at GM used firewall mounted resistors on some models, and resistance wire on others but that seems to be the case.

Try this link for the photos.

That link works. Man, that's one lonnnnnggggg piece of wire ya' got there. Have you measured it with an ohmeter? I'd be curious as to how much resistance it is. If you're not after originality you could "lose" that wire and just install a firewall mounted resistor (with straight automotive wire) off of any 12 volt Chevy with a points-type distributor.

If I install a ballast resistor would it create any problems with the Pertronix distributor kit I plan on installing? Any other issues I need to consider?

61; Not sure about a Pertronix, but most of the pointless systems I've seen run on a full 12 volts, no ballast resistor. You might wanna check with Pertronix on this and also what guage primary wire they recommend.

Check the schematic that comes with the kit. Any Petronics I have used always retains the resister. If you ad it you will have to eliminate the resister wire from the circuit.