I am restoring a 71 Satellite/Roadrunner clone and I replaced the wiring harness with a aftermarket harness. The aftermarket harness instructions had a section for Mopars and had a wire color cross reference. I got everything installed and every thing works except for the power to the ignition system. The harness instructions had me connect the power to the ignition/coil to the thick brown wire coming for the steering column so I checked the brown wire and it does not have power with the key off, on or in the start position. My question is this;ia the brown wire the correct wire to have the ignition wired to? If it is correct my steering column may have an issue which is possible because this car was a basket case before the restoration so I have never heard it run so I can't be sure it worked before. Thanks for the help.

The Brown wire is the Start wire IIRC. It passes 12v straight to the coil without going through the resistor for maximum starting voltage on the coil.

It should only have power when you turn the key to crank position.

The Blue wire next to it on the column connector sends current to the ballast resister (that feeds the coil) when the ignition is in the run position.

Here is the other side of the bulkhead.

Thank you very much for the help. I should have given a little more info. My car has the Performance Distributor Tri Power ignition system so it has no ballast resistor and requires just one 12v source to power everything ignition related. So I guess that means that the blue wire should get me what I need and it looks like my column may have an issue since the brown wire is dead all the time. I will check the blue wire and make sure its working correctly.

see if that helps...

You are correct the Blue wire should be your man.

The red should be hot all the time. If it is and the Brown wire does not get power in the crank position and/or if the blue wire does not get power in the run position then the switch is bad.

If the red does not get power then chase it down first.

Hope it helps.