I just received a Hitachi distributor for an EA81 and the terminals are not clearly marked -just some dabs of paint. Can anyone help me with which side is + and - ?

Yellow typically indicates the negative lead and red the positive. That's the usual convention.

 

GD

I got my replacement distributor but it didn't come wired so after remodeling the rubber grommet to fit the Hitachi and getting the wires through I managed to find some terminals. But, the terminal posts on the Hitachi pickup coil are not marked as positive or negative.(just some illegible splotches of paint)

 

Does it matter which leads go to which post on the pickup coil in the distributor?

 

Also the Nippondenso coil had a resistor(?) going from the negative terminal of the coil to ground. Does this apply to the Hitachi coil as well?

hr

The far terminal from your modified grommet should be positive. I just checked my setup. I had the same prob when switching from ND to the hitachi. I would seriously try to budget out a redline weber carb for that car. You can put a ea82 manifold on it if you run into a round hole style manifold and cant source a ea81 square one. They are just so much easier to keep in tune and everything is just so much cleaner.