HEI swap on a 73

[Yezzi]

I'm doing the swap on my 73 and was reading thread after thread about adding a 12 gauge wire and removing the yellow wire on the starter. All this great info applied to 67-72 what about a 73? Anyone have some step by step info on this swap?

[manimal]

It's pretty much the same as the 67-72's.Take some 12g wire put the correct ends on,run one side from the 'BATT" side of the HEI and then run the other end to a IGN HOT,(key on) 12v source on the fuse panel.
If you really want to get fancy, you can get 12g pink wire,get a factory end for the HEI and a factory male end for the firewall block and make it look factory. You remove the resistor wire from the firewall block,and replace with the HEI 12g wire. You can even go to the wrecking yard and grab a wire from an HEI equipped truck.
The attached pic is what the terminal looks like in the firewall block.

[Yezzi]

I have the correct connector and 12 gauge wire just trying to figure out what wire to disconnect on the starter and what plug to replace on the firewall block? My wiring diagram stinks no details on that part. I will post some pics maybe someone could point out the path.

[Yezzi]

[Yezzi]

[Yezzi]

[manimal]

You should have a braided(white) cloth wire. That is the resistance wire. Remove that from that block and replace with the HEI wire. The only wires on the starter after the swap should be the purple,main battery cable and the power wires with fusible links. I think it's the yellow wire that you remove.

[Jonboy]

Yes, remove the yellow wire. The purple wire on the starter is to engage the solenoid; it should be by itself on it's own terminal.

[justinburnett]

I just did this this morning. I'll run a pic through photobucket in a second. Just have to run outside.

Basically I just ran a relay with the switched power being the old yellow resistor wire for the coil, the power coming from the constant hot block on the fire wall and the ground being ground. Really super simple and it starts, drives, turns off, and doesn't draw the battery so I think I did good. be right back with a picture. it's a little dirty looking but I was in a hurry because there was more important stuff to do while I had a helper.

Here ya go. Total cost was about $7.00 and it'll get you running without cutting into anything for the time being. Maybe later if you want to tidy things up you could start pulling power from other stuff but personally, mine's just an old truck (and it's a '73 like yours) and looks like it. Not going for fancy, just functional. I wouldn't even have run the HEI except I had to throw another engine in to get it going again and the new one was from '87 and had the HEI coil already and it was easier to wire it in than put the old points distributor on. Hope this helps you.