Giulia Tech Community
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Stand-alone ignition control unit quick install guide. Product: Mallory HyFire 6-A Ignition box |
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Out of the Box Don't let the wires fool you. This is a pretty straitforward install. In fact, I would rate it about a 5 out of 10 on difficulty. With simple wiring knowledge and some basic tools you should be able to bang this out alone in about 2 hours. |
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One thing this guide will not cover is opening your distributor and finding the positive and negative control wires to your stock ignition coil. This is because, as the picture shows, I have previously installed an external coil which means for this install the wires are already spliced in and run outside of the distributor. This task is fairly easy though. Remove your distributor cap and rotor button. To remove the rotor button you may have to tap the starter on your engine to line up the shaft screw so you can remove it. Under the dust cover you will find the stock coil and ignition system. The installation of the external ignition box can go two ways. Either you can replace both your ignition box and coil with aftermarket parts (recommended) or you can continue to use your stock coil with the external box.
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I will cover the installation using an external coil; however, using the stock coil can be done. You will just need to run an extra set of wires which I will explain in a bit. Ahh yes, I better mention that if you plan to use an external coil, you will also need a modified distributor cap with an external coil electrode on it–a very low cost part from MSD.
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When you find your stock positive+ and negative- control wires to the coil, you want to splice into them and run them outside of the distributor cap as shown in the picture. These will be the control wires for your new ignition box telling it when to make the coil spark. Now, if you want to use your stock coil, you can just run the control wires out to the box and the coil wires from the box back into the distributor to your stock coil. I don't recommend this because the goal of installing an ignition box is to get a better, hotter spark. You can't accomplish that very well with a stock coil. If you're using the external coil, just go ahead and remove the stock coil–no need for it to be in there.
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O.K. So, you have your control wires–now the fun beings. Choosing a mounting point. I found a nice little spot tucked in on the inner fender nice and close to the coil. You may not be able to use this spot if you don't have an after market CAI (Cold Air Induction) or open air induction installed, but if you don't, and your doing this upgrade–What's wrong with you!?!? Remember, intake, exhaust, THEN ignition. |
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{mospagebreak}
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After I found the spot, I test fit the box and traced the holes with a marker then drilled them out. This is the last little itty bitty space left under my hood and in fact I could only use 3 screws to get it to fit here–two on the inner fender and one on the conner support. This is enough to hold the box secure but I wouldn't want to use any less.
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Neat and tidy. To dress up the box a little bit I am going to put the wires I don't need inside the box itself. These are the magnetic pickup wires (green and purple) and the tach wire (yellow). Be sure to tape the ends off as you don't want them touching anything inside the box. Look at that, all nice and neatly tucked away in there.
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A little something extra. I also had the idea to mount the box on some rubber strips to dampen any vibration. The manual does not call for this, but I always think it's a good idea when installing electronics under the hood. For this I chose an old lineman's blanket used for covering power lines during work (ahh working at the power company has other uses) you can also use an old inner tube or anything flat and rubber. |
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All mounted, now its time to move on to the wiring. This is pretty simple to figure out. You have 6 wires, positive and negative to the battery, positive and negative to the coil, and positive and negative from the ignition control (sometimes called the ignition and control wire).
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I am using disconnects to attach all my wires. This way I can easily bypass the ignition box w/o any tools if need be. I always like to put a little solder on my wires before I crimp any ends on them. Try to make the wires as short as possible.
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On the left are the adapters I made for the coil so I could disconnect the ignition box and reconnect the stock control wires if needed. The right shows all the ends put on and ready to be connected. A little tip is to alternate male and female ends. This way they can only be hooked up one way. You can't hook a positive to a negative and short out anything because they won't fit. It's almost idiot proof!!
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{mospagebreak}
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All connected You can see the control wires coming from the distributor going to the ones entering the box (red and white) and the coil wires (orange and black) going to the coil. In the event of a failure of the ignition box, the wires coming from the distributor can be hooked directly to the orange and black coil wires, and bingo, you're on your way again. Hopefully that will never have to happen but nice to know it's there. |
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Finding power I always like to go from the electrical box under the hood. It makes a nice clean environment and there is pretty much anything you need in there. For this I need unswitched +12 Volts. I find this right at the main connector of the power box. There is a fused (right) and unfused (left) link here. I chose to use the fused link. It's an 80 amp main fuse, but I find it's better to blow that then burn your car up if you should ever have a dead short in your wiring. (If you use a heavy enough gauge wire)
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Finding a ground No, you don't have to run the negative back to the battery. The entire frame of the car is negative. Though, I am guessing you knew that–right? Find a nice bolt and stick it! I had a nice 10mm brass bolt that I used for mine. Avoid anything on the engine. Although the engine is grounded out, it's not the best place to fine a good grounding point. |
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All Done! Well, isn't that nifty. All installed nice and neat like. Now for the testing–I will be writing a review on this product after I have had a few days and a few hundred miles to run it. |
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