Factory electronic distributor wiring

[fireguyfire]

I'm in the process of putting my engine bay back to stock after restoring my 73 challenger.
My car has a 1970 383 in it which is great, but of course it makes things a bit more challenging.
My forward engine harness had been badly butchered by the previous owner in order to install a next day yellow rectangular coil box on the inner fender.
After taking another harness generously offered by a person here, between the 2 I was able to make my original harness pretty much original which is great.
The problem I discovered tonight after test fitting the restored harness is that there is no connection for the "plug" coming out of the distributor.
I went back through my photos of before the resto and there was a mess of aftermarket wires going to and from the yellow coil, and the distributor plug had been spliced into those.
Can anyone tell me, does the plug from the distributor tie in to the forward engine harness on the top passenger side of the engine?
Anyone have a picture, or a description of the wire colours this plug plugs into?

[fireguyfire]

Are those wires part of the main forward wiring harness? I'm trying to figure out where they go back to from the plug connection on the distributor

[anlauto]

The two wires from the electronic distributor go directly to the ignition box, if using a Chrysler style box.

[fireguyfire]

Thanks anlauto; any chance someone could post up a pic of how it terminates so I can re create it?
Is it it's own separate harness that runs along the top of the engine, passenger side?

[anlauto]

Usually the main engine harness is all taped together and includes the plug for the distributor and the large plug for the electronic ignition module 

[Bullitt-]

.....Dang my eysight is failing .... Colors I stated before are wrong 

Looks to be Brown with white stripe & Tan with black stripe... Tan could be old white faded

Anyway I took this photo off my '73 small block & was surprised there is a sub harness.
The firs plug just stick out of the main engine harness & the sub harness which is less than a foot long pugs to the distributor.
So with a Big Block your sub harness would need to be made longer & should have some sheathing for protection I would think

[fireguyfire]

That explains it; there's no way I could make the plug near the main connector go to the same style plug on the distributor; a "sub harness" is kind of what I was guessing when I asked about it being separate.
I guess I need to wire up a pigtail between the 2

[anlauto]

Your factory 1973 harness would NEVER fit a 383. The distributors are in two totally different locations on the engine. Modifications will obviously need to take place. Making a little "sub harness" is one way of achieving the end result you need 

[fireguyfire]

Correct; that's what I meant, but didn't say clearly

[71383bee]

The sub harness is because for whatever reason they decided to put in inline bulkhead type connection for the engine forward harness that ends up at the right rear corner of the engine. The distributor hookup is literally a 1' or so extension. Real wacky considering how problematic these things get at bulkhead connections! 


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[Burdar]

The sub harness is because for whatever reason they decided to put in inline bulkhead type connection for the engine forward harness that ends up at the right rear corner of the engine. The distributor hookup is literally a 1' or so extension. Real wacky considering how problematic these things get at bulkhead connections! 

Makes complete sense to me from a factory standpoint.  With the harness being two pieces, you can have everything on the engine hooked up before it even goes into the car.  Once the body is dropped onto the engine/trans/K-member, you only have one connector to plug in.  With the main engine harness one piece, you have to hold half of it out of the way during "body drop", then route it over the engine and then plug everything in.  The two piece harness was a big time saver on the assembly line. 

[fireguyfire]

So I've found one more engine wiring mystery on my 73 challenger with the 70 383 unit.
There is a light brown wire that comes out of the fuse panel and comes through a rubber grommet by itself directly above the steering column. This wire runs across the firewall to the passenger side top of the engine, and then ends in a single rubber bullet style connector there.
This photo is of the engine before I restored it and I've put the green arrow on the connector in question. In the old photo it has a male bullet connector, also light brown wire that was then badly spliced into the mess that was an early aftermarket coil on the inner fender.
Now that I've removed all of that I don't have a matching plug for it, nor do I appear to be missing anything, and my colour wiring diagram doesn't show this wire.
Can anyone tell me on a 73 where this wire should go and what it's feeding?

[MoparLeo]

You've gone this far, just buy a new harness. Since the 383 was long gone by 1973, there was no factory harness for electronic ignition. But there is now. M&H wiring makes YearOne harnesses that are factory duplicates. They make a harness for  383 with electronic ignition conversion. Should just be plug and play. No drama. No guessing, splicing mismatched wires etc...
https://www.yearone.com/Product/challenger-cuda/hu117nm

[Bullitt-]

So I've found one more engine wiring mystery on my 73 challenger with the 70 383 unit.
There is a light brown wire that comes out of the fuse panel and comes through a rubber grommet by itself directly above the steering column. This wire runs across the firewall to the passenger side top of the engine, and then ends in a single rubber bullet style connector there.
This photo is of the engine before I restored it and I've put the green arrow on the connector in question. In the old photo it has a male bullet connector, also light brown wire that was then badly spliced into the mess that was an early aftermarket coil on the inner fender.
Now that I've removed all of that I don't have a matching plug for it, nor do I appear to be missing anything, and my colour wiring diagram doesn't show this wire.
Can anyone tell me on a 73 where this wire should go and what it's feeding?

This sounds like the tachometer wire that connects to the negative side of the coil ...
Mine looks Grey w/black tracer and comes through a grommet by itself between the bulkhead & brake booster. 

[Burdar]

The tach wire should be gray.  IIRC, my original one looked brown from age.  The only original brown wire on the passengers side should go to the electric washer motor.  If the car came with manual washers, the brown wire was wrapped around a retainer on the alternator.