Replacing points ignition with 60 series electronic ignition (1 Viewer)

[Random Dan]

Ok, so I actually have a 60, not a 40. But since it has the non USA points dizzy, which I believe is the same setup as a '76 FJ40, I thought I might have better luck here. I'm having troubles with my ignition which I have not had much luck diagnosing. In an effort to get my truck running in time for our TLCA chapter event this weekend I thought it might be easier to swap in electronic ignition. We have the complete dizzy/ignition setup from a smogged 60 (still installed on the truck) that I could borrow. What I'm wondering is what modifications would I need to make to the wiring harness and vac lines to get it to work?

So if any of you have swapped out the points ignition on your 40 to a 60 electronic ignition and have a list of the necessary modifications it would be appreciated very much.

 

[GregRay]

Do a search for "Big Cap Dizzy" in this forum and you'll pull up several useful threads.
Not sure what year your '60 is (is it the '83 in in your sig. line or another truck?), why it has a non-US points dizzy, or what the vacuum lines look like, so without that info. it is hard to tell what you'll need to do. When I did this conversion on my '74 FJ40, I recall that the wire between the new ignitor and the distributor was too short (so my options were either lengthening the wire or relocating my ignitor/coil to the firewall). Beyond that, there were no other wiring mods. needed.

 

[Random Dan]

Do a search for "Big Cap Dizzy" in this forum and you'll pull up several useful threads.
Not sure what year your '60 is (is it the '83 in in your sig. line or another truck?), why it has a non-US points dizzy, or what the vacuum lines look like, so without that info. it is hard to tell what you'll need to do. When I did this conversion on my '74 FJ40, I recall that the wire between the new ignitor and the distributor was too short (so my options were either lengthening the wire or relocating my ignitor/coil to the firewall). Beyond that, there were no other wiring mods. needed.

Yup it's an 83 JDM, hence the non-USA dizzy. It has no smog equipment from factory but does have EGR.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

I can't remember if the NAS 60 series had a vacuum advance or vacuum retard distributor.
I have a non-usa dizzy in my 40 that I swapped the points out for a Pertronix system (I have the points in my glove box) and eliminated the ignitor from the system. It runs awesome.
The first thing I'd do, though, is bypass the ballast resistor. If thats bad, the truck will fire when cranking but die after you let off. Run a wire from the battery posititive post to the coil positive and then see if it fires up.

 

[Random Dan]

It has a vac advance dizzy.

So the USA ignitor assembly has three wires coming out of it. The one long one goes to the dizzy, and then there are two short ones. The short one that comes directly from the ignitor box is the signal wire for the tach, which can simply be taped off. The other short one (which should be connected the black/yellow 12v wire) goes to the coil + terminal and then another wire goes from the coil + terminal to the ignitor. Since my 12v black yellow wire is designed to attach to a post not the plug wire I could simply attach it to the + coil terminal and bypass the short wire going from coil + to the plug.

Now as for the dizzy I can attach my current vac advance line to the outside of the two ports and just plug the inside one. Then I just need to do something with the two vent lines from the cap and I'm good to go.

Does this all sound right to you guys?

 

[Random Dan]

So the two wires which formerly connected to the + and - terminals on the coil, are they needed for anything or should they just be taped off?

 

[Random Dan]

Ok, one more question. The wire that used to attach to the + coil terminal. It comes out of the wiring harness, goes to the + coil terminal, then connects to a blue plug which goes to a small black box on the coil mount that says on it "90980-04038 250/0.47 C". A black wire then goes from this box and loops back around to ground in the same place the box is mounted. What is the purpose of this wire and is there anything that I need to do with it?

 

[Random Dan]

Ok, sit-rep: The large cap dizzy and USA coil/ignitor are installed and I have spark at the spark plugs! Still won't start though, so I need to double check my timing but I'm out of time for now. I'm quite optimistic though now that at least I'm sparking.