BOB'S GARAGE

Light My Fire

Ford Duraspark meet GM HEI

This is not a new combo. It has been used before and is very reliable. Not to mention a breeze to hookup.

The Ignition System

The ignition system is going to be a bit different but not anything out of the ordinary. For reliability the distributor will be a Ford Duraspark unit of 74 vintage. The twist will be the use of a GM control module and a EEC4 HEI coil. This is not a new combo. It has been used before so not a biggie. The cool part is that the early 4 pin GM module is compact enough to fit in without cluttering up the engine bay and screaming upgrade. The use of an early cap and rotor will help stay with the early theme of the motor bay. The Ford HEI coil is powerful and easily located as to not be obvious.


Battery Tray

I had to fabricate a new battery mount. I had what was left of the original unit but the main tray section was badly damaged over the years. I was able to salvage the foot that mounts to the fender apron and the bracket that mounts on the front core support. That gave me both ends but I needed a main pan to hold the replacement battery tray. I had a couple of leftover trays in the shop so I picked one of them to be the mount base for the battery and built the support for that unit. A bit of pattern cutting and playing with the layout was interesting. I settled on what I wanted so a quick rummage through the scrap bin netted a piece if 16 gauge sheet stock. After some trimming and adding a 1/2 inch flange to one edge for support it was fit to the recovered foot and bracket. I pinned it temporarily till I can final assemble.

After a coat of paint I assembled the unit. I had considered welding it all together but instead decided on good ole nuts and bolts for now. I might weld it later but this is solid for now. The last detail is the battery hold downs. I have the originals and I will see if I need to do anything extra to make it happen. I would like to fab something that looks correct and I even have a finned aluminum top to go over it. Still finagling with the final set up. At least now I have a place for the battery to sit and can get some of the cabling gray to it.


Charging / Power System

Because this is a low budget project I decided to re-purpose the alternator from the 70 onto this car. Not a while lot of electrical on this car so the 55 amp unit should be just fine. Since it is an externally regulated unit I used a new replacement solid-state regulator. After a bit of searching and test fitting it landed on the front core support passenger side under the battery box / shelf. Close and out of the way. I built a new interconnect cable with new connectors to hook it all together.