[John Strenk]

A simple way to do this is:

Driver side firewall, there is a 10 gauge red w/ white stripe wire (see picture).
Supply this power wire to the "BAT" terminal on your HEI.
This is good for your O.E. 4 wire Tach to work.
Nothing into the "TAC" terminal on your HEI.

Yep, that's how I've got it hooked up. Still not firing though.

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When I wired the new distributer in I disconnected the ICM so I'm also wondering if that somehow cut power to the wires going into the carb. To hook up the HEI I just cut the power wire going to the ICM and then connected the hot wire running out of the firewall that used to go to the coil into the new distributer, and spliced in the exciter wire to the alternator.

....

Check your wiring again.

Did you actually use the wire that use to go to the coil or did you use the wire ou cut to the ICM?

You should of used the wire that went to the ICM and cur out the wire that went to the Coil. The wire running to the coil is a resistance wire that will cut the voltage going to the distributor to just barely usable levels.

If you have a volt meter, you can check the voltage going to the distributor BAT+ terminal. It should be 12 volts or more when the key is ON. If it's around 9 volts or less you are using the wrong wire to power the distributor.