Upgrading my point type distributor to HEI. Wish I would have read the earlier posts before purchasing the larger diameter HEI, since it sounds like it will not fit without a little firewall work. Not wanting to bang on the firewall. (Car is currently at the paint shop)

Do I need to upgade the wire size from the ignition switch to the distributor with the upgraded HEI dist? And will I still need the hot wire from the starter back to the coil. The car OEM wire harness is a '67
KJ

The stock wire is a skinny lil resister wire. It's covered with a white fabric covering, possible aged to tan or brown by now.

It needs to come out for the HEI.

In an ideal world, pull it completely out of the bulkhead connector, and solder a new 12 gauge wire to the terminal, and put it back.

In a nearly as ideal world, cut it as short as you reasonably can, 3-6" is fine, and solder on the new wire.

The qwiring under the dahs does not need to be changed.

You could change your motor mounts and towers that would move the block ahead a little. I wish I had known that before I dimpled mine. But there is also a small cap ready-to-run HEI by MSD and you wouldn't have to dimple the firewall. I did as Jim said and cut my old resistor wire short and soldered on a new wire. It works fine. But before you do any dimpling do a search regarding this issue.

The msd Ted speaks about is #8360. Ran one for years, it's a great distributor.
If your budget's tight, a china copy can be found on ebay under a hundred.

Thank you guys for the information. I will cut the wire back and put the 12ga wire in its place.
Will I still need the yellow wire from the starter, (R post), back to the distributor? If so, probably should go with 12ga here as well.
KJ

Thank you guys for the information. I will cut the wire back and put the 12ga wire in its place.
Will I still need the yellow wire from the starter, (R post), back to the distributor? If so, probably should go with 12ga here as well.
KJ

If my memory serves me correct the answer is, no. Just your new wire to the batt. position on the cap. If you have a tach it will hook up to the other connection on the cap.

The msd Ted speaks about is #8360. Ran one for years, it's a great distributor.
If your budget's tight, a china copy can be found on ebay under a hundred.

Jim, did you have to dimple your firewall? Or was this on a different model car that didn't have clearance issues.

The MSD that I have is part# 8365. Which is the large cap w/coil and had to dimple the firewall. The 8360 which Jim talks about is a better fit, but still has an external coil.

Thank you guys for the information. I will cut the wire back and put the 12ga wire in its place.
Will I still need the yellow wire from the starter, (R post), back to the distributor? If so, probably should go with 12ga here as well.
KJ

Check your existing wiring. Easiest way is to disconnect the yellow wire from the coil (and tape it off) and see if the car starts.

If it does. you're good to go.

I have heard of, and may even have seen, 67's that did not power the hot lead to the coil with the ignition switch in "start." Without the yellow wire, the car wouln't run, or would be very hard to fire up.

This is not an issue with 68 and 69's.

Thank you Jim and Ted for the great information. I did find the cheaper version of the MSD 8360 distributor on EBay. Its a Procomp PC8021 for $96, and an external coil for $27. The local speed shop sells the same Procomp Dist and coil for $218. They claim they have had no issues with the Procomp unit, (sale many), and sell all the replacement components if needed. Guess I'm going to cheap out and give the Procomp a shot. Thank you again for the info.
KJ