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CEI distributor wiring connections??

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startech47

startech47

Jedi Knight
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My son's 1979 MG Midget that came as a picture puzzle, completely disassembled, has a CEI distributor. The connections from the magnetic sensor to the amplifier is a single two wire keyed connector and only fits one way. There are two wires coming from the amplifier to connect to the cars electrical system, a white wire and a white wire with a black tracer. Both have female spade lug connectors installed. My question is where to connect them and does the cars wiring need to be altered? I'm assuming that the white wire with the black tracer (switched power to trigger the coil?) connects to the - terminal of the coil and no modification to the cars wiring is required as the cars connections currently on the - terminal of the coil attach to the tachometer and to the unused connector for the old EID distributor. I am assuming that the white wire provides power to the CEI amplifier. Does the white wire need to be connected to the old white wire in the unused connector for the old EID distributor, providing 12 VDC to the amplifier at all times, to the ballast resistor, which would provide reduced voltage after the car starts, or to another location? If the wire is connected for 12 VDC at all times the ballast resistor will provide no function. The Bentley, Haynes, and Porter manuals do not show the CEI distributor wiring.

Thanks, Phil
 
The White/Black wire goes to the negative coil post and the White wire connects to the positive coil post. This is a 45D4 CEI distributor, right? There should also be a solid black ground wire to ground the unit.
 
Yes. It is the 45D4 CEI distributor. This results in three white/black wires on the negative coil post (one to the the 3 pin EID connector, one to the CEI amplifier, and one to the tachometer) and three wires on the positive coil post (a white wire to the CEI amplifier and two white/light green wires, one to the starter relay and one to the 100 ohm in-harness resistor wire. Full 12 VDC power will come from the white/light green wire attached to the starter during cranking and slightly reduced/current limited VDC from the white/light green wire attached the in-harness 100 ohm resistor wire. The opposite end of the 100 ohm in-harness resistor wire is fed by a white wire from the ignition switch when the ignition switch is turned on. The standard ballast resistor is not needed now. Does this sound correct? Thanks for your help.
 
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