68 XR7 Wiring Help

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Maintenance Restoration and Repair
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Hi everyone

Thanks for taking the time to check out this post, and for any help you can provide.

I have a ‘68 XR7 over here in England. I’ve had some intermittent issues when trying to start the car. She cranks fine, fuel is getting into the 4 barrel carb with no problems. She just won’t fire up.

Just for reference, she has fired up in the past and drives beautifully, however, I kept running into an issue where I would take her out for a drive and if I stopped at a gas station, for example, when I went to start the car again she wouldn’t start and I would have to jump her (this was with an old battery which has since been replaced).

I’ve been doing some research on the wiring of 68 Cougars, as well as the XR7, so I now know about the issues regarding the tach issue with XR7s (mine has not worked since I got her). This got me wondering when I saw this main harness in the engine bay: what am I looking at here? Why has the red/green wire been cut? The red/green wire that’s been cut at the 2 pin connector has been connected to another wire and I’m not sure if that is the pink resistance wire.

Any help and/or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Wires
Wires931×1441 315 KB

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That red/green wire is likely to be mated with the pink resistor wire at the back end of the molded 3 pin plug. The purpose of that wire is to feed full voltage to the coil while the engine is being cranked, and comes from the starter solenoid (I plug). This may be your problem…I don’t know if the car can start at less than battery voltage, but it is surely possible. With a low battery, it becomes more problematic.
You can see the wire at the back end of the plug as a short pigtail, and it appears to be spliced to the pink resistor wire under the tape. The pink resistor wire should have as well gone into the back of the plug.