another small block chevy question

[da mule]

ok
I have a distributer question.
robbed the sbc from an 84 1/2 ton it has an old style dist. only there are 4 extra wires leaving the base of the dist. they go to the puter mounted behind the glove box.
I have been told by 2 buddies that it will not work ,that I need to find an older dist to take its place.
another says that it will run the engine if i simply leave the wire harness unplugged that the extra wires are hooked to and run my 12volt to the wire on top of dist marked batt.
any takers?
any help is appreciated since I want to have the engine ready to run before I tear out the 230

[bluesman2a]

not sure exactly what you have, but if you swap in an HEI, it'll run with just one +12V wire. You can get them pretty cheap too. I would invest in a decent HEI rather than trying to piece together some computer-junk...

SBC+HEI, been working for YEARS and there are 1000's of them out there, get one from aftermarket or head to the boneyard.

[2ndA]

84 is still the HEI distributor, isn't it? Coil in the top of the cap?

[fng]

Coincidently my SBC is an 84. I'm running a Hei and no fuel injection. It ever clears the firewall by about 1 inch.

[wrecker]

The wires are for the electronic spark control. Very easily swapped out with the older style pickup unit for about 15 bucks if I remember correctly. Also, you can cross wire A with wire C or wire B with wire D--Idon't remember exactly which but it's the first wire on one side with the third wire. Basically it's the hot wire going to the computer and then the modified signal coming back. Somehow related to the knock sensor. Surely someone with the correct terminology and exact description will post up but at any rate, you are an easy fix away from making it work.

[Swampthang]

splice a and c wires together and time like normal.