I'm trying to find an ignition-activated wire in the front of the car that I can use to power some LED driving lights.

Could someone with a working car tell me if the wire to the engine bay inspection light is continuously "hot" or is it activated only when the ignition is on? That's just something the FSM wiring diagram doesn't tell you.

If you know of another ignition-activated wire in the engine bay, please let me know. There are bullet connectors for fog lamps on my harness, but the car never had those so I have no knowledge of how those might be wired in the absence of a switch.

Looks like constant hot by the diagram. It comes directly from the fuse block and has a ground. Not sure what you're working with or if it's together or not (why not just check with a test light or meter?) but if it's apart you can check continuity back to the fuse block, or if it has a fuse in place, check continuity back to the positive battery cable end.

Make it easy on yourself. Attach a ring lug to your wire and attach it to the alternator. Be sure to use an inline fuse to protect your wiring.

Thanks, guys. The car is in reassembly after having been totally stripped down, all rust repaired, frame stiffened and lovely repaint in metal-flake clearcoat orange over epoxy primer. Wiring harnesses were re-wrapped and installed. Just finished seating area upholstery and installation of Vintage Air HVAC system. Put in a new 6-circuit fuse block for all the new accessories fed by 10 gauge wires directly from the battery terminals but no battery in place yet. Wiring run for quad speakers and power windows. Putting dashboard back in place is the next step. Just thinking ahead to what needs to be accounted for up front. Wiring directly to alternator sounds eminently reasonable and definitely ignition-activated..

Actually the lug on the alternator isn't switched. The black/white wire on the voltage regulator is switched, though I would not use that to power a light as it is also connected to the ignition coil. It would be smarter to use power from the black white to energize a relay (with a fuse between the voltage regulator and the relay) and use a wire from the alternator to power the lights.

1 hour ago, Seppi72 said:

and power windows

what did you use for power windows?

I went with a $70 power window unit that can be gotten on Amazon (JDMSPEED) or eBay. I know that regardless of the vendor, they're all made in China and probably by one particular company. They may change the color of the plastic parts for a large order from a distributor, but they're essentially all the same.

I'm revising a tech article on installing the power windows but likely won't have in on the CZC site until later this fall.

I'm going to want power windows at some point, but would like a fairly invisible system. Atleast on the door card...

I'll keep an eye out for your thread