Distributor Help Please

[DohertyCM]

the green wire from the distributor has a center wire and then a "shield like wire wrapped around it.."they dont touch obviously"... The question is...does the shield need to be hooked to anything...(crane HI-6) installed. Is there an upgrade for this particular distributor like pertronix?

I need to verify wiring because the car will not start....and it has a crane HI-6 installed...

Would this type of distributor be considered a magnetic trigger? or something else.
I didnt install this, so I dont know the back story on the install.

This is on a 1988 930

[DohertyCM]

I see nobody is touching the fabled "green wire" discussion.
I have seen it mentioned in other threads...

[timmy2]

It is a magnetic trigger type.
Called a reluctor....
Answers may be short due to Crane system, the green wire is the coaxial signal wire. outside ground, inside signal as per memory, check wiring diagrams to be sure. Get yourself a wiring manual from Crane? Change to an MSD ? Go back to Bosch?

[304065]

Originally Posted by DohertyCM

I see nobody is touching the fabled "green wire" discussion.
I have seen it mentioned in other threads...

The Green wire...

[DohertyCM]

Well I have received wiring diagrams from Crane.
But on the crane you have two different types of connection magnetic or not.
But I could not find any description of what type this was.
Magnetic trigger type is exactly what I was looking for.
The shielding means that it will go to the negitive side of the connection.
I might go ahead and replace it with aircraft sheilded wire and change it to the magnetic style and see if that will work.

Thanks for the info.

Chris

[timmy2]

The challenge with replacing the wire will be at the connector in the dizzy. It's already shielded so I'm not sure what you will gain replacing it.

[HawgRyder]

Normally when dealing with a shielded wire...you only ground one end.
This can be either end...depending on the application.
When dealing with an amplifier (like the MSD box) the ground would be applied at the amp end.
But...as pointed out...the dist in this case has the ground...so...only the middle conductor would be hooked up at the MSD box.
The reason for the shield...to keep extra spikes of power from false triggering the MSD box.
Hope this helps.
Bob

[James Brown]

your question is the car does not start and your verifying several components yes? so go through a checklist of things. Do you have spark, do you have fuel, ect.
The green wire is just that, 1 wire from the signal to the box with a shield. simple. check with a multimeter. then move on to the next. air, fuel, spark, volts, timing. that's it. green wires don't fail that often and you can cut and splice them to fix. there uber expensive and darn near unobtanioum.

the PO had cut the green wire to remove the dissy for what ever reason, yellow wire nuts were used to reconnect them!. I never saw that for a year or more, engine ran great

[DohertyCM]

Yes, I have fuel
No, I dont have spark.
I dont have spark at the plug...distributor or at the coil.
I dont have any voltage going to the coil.
The light on the Crane is solid which means that its not receiving a signal from the trigger...

violet and green wires.....funny thing...there were not violet and green wires..
So I am trying to determine what type system this is and figure out where the signal is being lost.

I had an MSD 6AL in my 74 911 and NEVER had any problems with it....I am about a half an inch from trashing the whole crane system and buying an MSD system..
And I cant go back to stock because all of the wiring for the stock system have been removed or modified. So far everyone has provided key bits of info that are leading me down the right path.

My son has told me " you will have the car out of the garage by this Sunday so we can start on mine.."

So I am trying to make the deadline...I just picked up some aircraft shielded wiring from a friend so I can replace what needs to be replaced.

[DohertyCM]

Well I ripped out the whole crane system. No spark.
So I am moving to the MSD-6AL-2 with a new coil.
Which means new cap and rotor and running new wires.


What was odd, is that the color codes on the box didn't match the instructions from Crane. Example...the distributor mag pickup wires were black and red....the instructions showed violet and green. Really confusing because the violet was used as a ground and the green was the tach output.

And by the way, the distributors green wire was not shorted and showed 601 ohms of resistance....so I as assumed it was good. Anybody know what the range is?

[HFR_Racer]

600 ohms resistance means that your pickup coil is good. The service manual spec if 490~700 ohms. The pickup coil is the copper winding that is located inside your distributor. It's just a coil of wire so it's either going to be good or be "open" and thus no resistance. This is the coil that the green wire and shielding wire attach to at the distributor.

Just because you have 600 ohms resistance doesn't necessarily mean that your distributor pickup / reluctor wheel combination is working. If you spin the distributor shaft a low AC voltage. You should see approximately 0.1 VAC if you test the voltage coming from the pickup coil (at the distributor) if your cranking the engine over using the engine starter.

It sounds like you should call the Crane tech line and ask them which wires to hook up...


According to the Crane HI-6 manual you should connect the shielding (-) of your OEM green wire to the GREEN wire of the Hi-6. You should connect the signal wire (+) of your OEM green wire to the violet wire of the HI-6.

[DohertyCM]

Thanks for the info on the distributor. I will test it to make sure it is working correctly and I am getting the correct voltage.

I would agree with calling Crane...and
I would agree with the colors and hook up sequence...that is how I saw it also.
However the box wire did not match the colors....it was odd.

The distributor info is awesome info to put in my book....THANKS!

[DohertyCM]

Well, as it turns out the Crane Hi-6 ignition box was bad.
I put in a MSD 6AL Digital with a new MSD coil, new rotor, new distributor and redid the electrical harnes.

What a job...

Started on the first turn of the key....Love that MSD

The green wire I was asking about was redone and adapted to the MSD harnes using the violet and green wires...

Now to the rest of the car...

[timmy2]

Glad you fixed it up.
Thanks for following up to the thread. Way too many dead threads lately.

[DohertyCM]

What should I do with the crane setup? Circular file it or send it back to the factory for refurb and then sell it?

[timmy2]

Check out what they go for used on e-slay and then decide. May be better off to sell it broken to some electronics geek.