WIRING HELL... Help needed

azpsycho

azpsycho

New member
So I purchased a 74 Scout II which has a rat nest of wiring. It would not turn over shortly after being placed in the garage. I replaced the ignition coil and coil condenser. It turned over but then sparks shot out from the ground cable on the battery and it died. Besides replacing the battery if needed what else should I look into?
 
That's a pretty wide open question, need more info with pics if you can. Ie motor? Dizzy? What else works or is it just a starter prob? And "what" died, battery,starter?
But first check and clean batt cables.

Ron
 
Its a 345. It was hard to start when I bought it. The wiring is literally patched together throughout the engine bay. I plan on a rebuild and rewiring but need to get it running again so I could move it around. It acted as if it had no power. So upon inspection I found the coil condenser had a broken wire. So I replaced both condenser and ignition coil. When I tried to start it the starter was cranking over but their was no fire from the plugs is how it sounded. Then a spark shot up out of the negative battery terminal and now its doing nothing. I can take pics tonight.
 
If what you've called a condenser is the item attached to the coil, that's actually not the condenser. Its a noise suppression capacitor for suppressing ignition rf that comes through the radio. The condenser is inside the distributor if this rig is still equipped with a breaker points ignition. Hopefully you didn't toss the coil you replaced. There May not be anything wrong with it.

Clearly you are somewhat unfamiliar with the underhood workings of this vehicle. That's no knock on you. No one is born with that knowledge and we all have to start somewhere. Since your descriptive abilities are somewhat lacking at the present, ron's advice to provide well-focused pictures of the current set up will help us help you better than anything else.
 
Yeah computers are my expertise. I called it a capacitor but the parts stores call it a condenser which I found odd as well. I will post the pics tonight but I will warn you ahead of time that this engine is a mess. It had a horrible backyard mechanic just ruin it as far as wiring goes. Also there was actually a birds nest in the engine bay when I initially got it running.
 
Pretty commonplace actually. Its a rarity to encounter a nearly 40 year old rig that hasn't been butchered all to hell.
 
Sorry for not getting back to those who tried to help. A buddy of mine who restores datsun 510 and other various cars has helped me out and convinced me to buy a whole new wiring harness. We are going with the e-z wiring 21circuit. I will upload pics and progress over the next couple of weeks. Anyone here have any advice on whats the best fix for the bulkhead connectors?
 
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