'65 396 Coil Wire Connections???

[James W.]

I have found some conflicting info regardiong the coil positive and negative wire connections between pictures I've taken of the wiring of two running cars and what I have found in the AIM. I have pictures of two 1965 L78 cars with the black 20 ga. wire connected to the negative side of the coil and the white 12 ga. wire connected to the positive side of the coil. The illistrations in the 1965 AIM shows the following;


E317 or page D2 on the "Cancelled" L78 page shows the black wire going to the positive side and the white wire going to the negative side of the coil


E297 or page 5 in the K66 section shows the black wire going to the positive side and the white wire going to the negative side of the coil

Which is correct? I would assume since these two cars that I have pictures of the coil lead wires are attached as described above are operable, this leads me to believe that they are correct and the AIM is incorrect.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

James West

[Domenic T.]

Re: '65 396 Coil Wire Connections???

James,
I don't have the AIM in front of me but the negative side of the coil go's th the distributer and I've only seen black wire from the distributer to the neg side of the coil.

DOM

[Wayne M.]

Re: '65 396 Coil Wire Connections???

For 1964 and 1965, concerning the TI harness from amplifier to coil and distributor, the white wire goes to the NEGATIVE coil post, and the black goes to the positive. I know this is contrary to logic used for regular ignition coils, and for the color coding of negative wiring in general. This is probably why GM changed it for 1966 and 1967, with a revision to the internal resistance location. See wiring schematic in 6Y-12 of the '65 Corvette Shop Manual.

As for James' observation that black was on negative on the two cars he examined, either they were connected wrongly (but still will work) with the correct harness, OR, they were correctly wired but using a '66 or '67 TI harness.