1969 Chevy Nova HEI Ignition System - Spark It Up

This wiring harness (PN 8861) comes with the 6AL box and is installed in place of the ignition module. The small plastic wire clamps are included to keep the wire in place; likewise, the rubber grommet is there to keep the distributor base area sealed off from outside contaminants.

As should be done whenever any of the ignition components are serviced, we picked up a new cap and rotor set before proceeding with the 6AL conversion. The kit comes with two contact buttons. The factory-style button has high resistance to limit electromagnetic interference or radio noise, but can actually heat up and melt the cap when used with a higher-output ignition like an MSD 7 Series. The lower-resistance button helps keep temperatures down, and a good set of wires will keep EMI in check. We used the low-resistance piece, and then installed the required rubber washer before clipping on the modified dustcover. Note the long contact piece in the new dustcover; this works as an extension between the rotor and the secondary coil tower on the top of the cover.

After bolting the new rotor into place on the distributor, the modified cap assembly clips into place just like a stock cap.

We then turned our attention to mounting the MSD 6AL box and Blaster 2 coil. Fortunately, there was plenty of room for both on the '69 Nova's firewall. Note the vibration-absorbing rubber mounts used to mount the ignition box.

This Power Tower adapter comes with the modified dustcover and coil wire portion of the Super HEI Kit. To attach it, the socket-type plug end is unscrewed and the adapter is placed into the female-style plug opening on the coil. The plug end is then tightened, which expands the inside of the adapter against the coil opening, holding it in place.

Wiring the 6AL box turned out to be the shortest part of the process. We began by plugging the magnetic pickup connector from the right side of the box to the harness we previously installed in the distributor (arrows). The wires attached to the 6AL box are extremely long to accommodate a variety of mounting locations. We'll shorten them up later, but for now we just tied the extra length together and secured it out of harm's way.

Here we've used the white jumper harness (included with the 6AL) to connect the red wire from the 6AL box to the key connector in the Nova's harness. We've only used one of the white jumper's two wires here, taping the other off. The second wire is for five- and seven-pin module installations. We've also used the brown wire, found in the Super HEI Kit, to connect the tach wire on the car to the tach output terminal on the box.

Again, the wires coming from the 6AL box are very long, so the wires exiting the left side of the box look more confusing than they are. We're already mentioned the red wire, which plugged into the key connector in the Nova's harness. There's a heavy red wire for power and a heavy black wire for ground, both of which were connected to the battery. The black and orange wires (1) connect to the new external coil; the white wire (2) isn't used and gets taped off. All that was left at this point was to install the coil wire and fire her up.

The Nova fired up readily enough, but kept running after the ignition was turned off. This condition is fixed by installing this small diode, which is provided in the 6AL parts bag, inline of the wire that goes to the charging indicator. It keeps power from flowing through the charging light indicator and into the ignition wire. Problem solved, this Nova is more ready than ever for a few juiced quarter-mile runs.