wiring nightmare (1 Viewer)

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hi guys, Im trying to rewire a guys 1975 fj40. starting with the engine bay. namely the ignition right now. what a mess. i have the ignition switch wired and i can get the engine to crank, but i have no spark. ive tried different combinations of coil hook jups ans nothing works. im not getting spark from the coil. first of all, can i use a coil that doesnt require an external resistor? if so, then how in the world do i wire it. im using the painless kit, and nothing i do seems to work. i have 12 volts at the positive lead of the coil. and the negative side is hooked up to the dizzy. what else needs hooked up to the coil? do i have to use the igniter? if so, where do the wires from it go? there is a black wire, a red wire and a yellow wire. im pretty frustrated with it. any help will be really appreciated.
 
Do you have a schematic?
This one is probably pretty close to what you have. Note that there is an error in the ignition switch labeling on this. Start and Accessory are reversed.

If you have a coil that doesn't need a resistor, that is fine. Just leave the resistor out. Hook up the BY wire from the ignition to the coil positive and leave out the wire from the starter motor to the coil positive.

Yes you need the igniter. It won't do much igniting without it. That's what makes the coil generate a spark. This schematic should tell you how to wire it.
 

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he said " im using the painless kit"...then 1 check if your igniter (dizzy)if it's the point version=1975..then you need the resistor in the coil. check gap on the points,check good ground at the engine..many things to check for proper spark..if the fj40 still have the 2f engine please be more accurate on your engine type....V-8....toyota engine ?
 
okay, lets say i have the painless kit wired correctly for the ignition. how do i hook up the ignitor? i have a black wire, an all yellow wire and a red wire. thats it. my coil positive post has the 12v ignition wire on it. the coil negative is going to the only post on the dizzy. what else gets hooked up to the coil?
 
dcraig, you're going to have to post some pics if you want help. An ignitor distributor has two wires going to it. A points distributor only has one. If you open up your distributor, are there points in there?
You say that you have a black wire, a yellow wire and a red wire. An ignitor has 5 wires. Do you have a photo of your ignitor?
 
its a points dizzy. i will post a pic of the ignitor this weekend sometime, but i know it only has those 3 wires.
 
I'm confused. You either have points or an ignitor, not both.
Do you have a points dizzy with an after market ignitor?
 
You either have points or an igniter, not both.


Wrong. 75-76 had a "semi-electronic" ignition. THey retained the points as the trigger and used an ignitor to beef up the spark.
 
^^ Right. Don't forget the "semi transistorized" ignition. Points plus ignitor. Tastes great, less filling.
 
okay here is what i have. note the only wires that connect to anything are yellow, black and red(the sleeve is covering the color) so how the heck do i get spark from a semi transistorized ignition system?
 
oops, fprgot the pic!!
SDC13463.jpg
 
how about if i put a flamethrower coil on ans just wire it up like a regular points setup?
 
If it was me, I would lose the old semi electronic setup. If you get a pertronix igniter and coil you can wire it straight up simply. That setup won't need the resistor or that old igniter or any wires from the starter, and you won't need a capacitor either.

If you change out the coil but keep the points, you'll need a capacitor, and the resistor.
 
how about if i put a flamethrower coil on ans just wire it up like a regular points setup?

A "flamethrower"coil is just like the one you already have when it is used without the external resistor. It can be used with regular points, but they won't last long because of the increased current that they have to switch. Keeping you ignitor is the best idea. There are only three wires. Power from the key on, wire to the distributor and a wire to the - side of the coil.
 
I agree that the primary resistance of the flamethrower coil is about the same as the stock one when used without the external resistor. The stock one is designed to run at half of the input voltage though, so it may not be capable of handling the power without overheating if it is run at 12v. 2x the voltage making 4x the power.
 
so, if i use the old ignitor(assuming it works), red would splice in to "key on", black to the dizzy, and yellow to the - side of the coil?
 
Yellow wire

Hi,

I own a 77 FJ40 that has points and the ignitor. It took me 3 weeks to find why I had no spark and in the end after replacing the coil, coil wire and banging my head a few times not wanting to f** with the points, the points themselves had a hairline crack in the spring band that fell apart in my hand when I finally removed them.

That said the red wire comes from the starter to the positive side of the coil the black goes from the negative to the points screw on the dizzy and note that with the key on you should have 12 volts at that point at the dizzy and if you do then the next thing in line is the points themselves.
The yellow wire from the ignitor goes to the external resistor mounted on the ignitor in my case, pic below.
Don't be confused about the red wire there as well as I have bypassed the ignitor with a PenTronix electronic ignition.

The manual points out a way to bypass the ignitor if it is suspect or you are stranded if one goes out and the diagram below shows how, but you will need a .22mfd Condensor to protect your points if you plan to run it that way.
8.jpg
9.jpg
 

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