RustyBrat Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Okay... so i just swapped a low mileage ea71 and trans into my brat out of a 79 wagon, and put the old engine and trans into the wagon. thats all done, my problem is the distributors are different! the 79 is an electronic distributor and the 78 is not. the thing i want to know is, how do i make them run again? i cant figure it out... there are two wires that come out of the distributor cap on the 79, a blue and a red one i think, and when they were on the wagon the ran over the engine and plugged in by the firewall. on the brat, there is nowhere to plug them in. i was going to swap the coils and capacitors, but after tracing the wiring from the capacitor on the brat i found that i would have to basically swap the entire wiring harness... i guess my question is, how do you convert from running an old style distributor to an electronic one? somebody please help they are immobile until i get this fixed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruparts Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 hi , i'm not so up on the late 70's but why couldn't you use the distributor that was in each of the cars in those same cars and then the wiring would match ,, are the motors so different that you have to keep the distributor in them and can't switch them? seems easier to change dists, than to change the wiring to match them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 I looked into doing that, but the wiring goes all the way to the igmition and who knows where else, so i would have to pretty much swap the whole wire harness. I FINALLY found a thread that told me how to convert from reg. to elec. disty, so i can get my 78 brat running again but i have yet to find one telling how to do the opposite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk250 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Hello, I beleive Ruparts is correct. The easiest way is to just swap distributors, then the wiring will match up. Put the non electronic dist. back into the brat, electronic dist. back in the wagon, then you have the correct dist. and wiring in each. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 thanks for the input truly, but i really want to keep the electronic in the brat... i know i can get the brat running and honestly i dont really need to get the wagon running again anytime soon. in fact im looking to sell it asap... no money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyBrat Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 the 78 brat runs again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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