'95 2500 TBI to Carb for daily Q's

[rockosocko]

Good morning guys n gals.
Quick overview-
'95 chevy 2500 Cheyenne ext cab, long bed 320K miles.

Last year, picked up truck last fall and ran pretty well for a few months.
Had a crack in the block that didn't show, but then the white smoke.
It's my daily and NEEDED to get it running within a weekend or so.

Had a older 283 (.060 forged) '97 Self ported Vortec heads rebuilt to accept higher lift. Comp ex268 cam, Ebay intake to match heads, TBI adapter, headers and it's been getting average 14mpg.! BUT, pig rich at idle and have always worried about cyl wash at lower speeds, so I change oil often.
3.42 gear so I'm only at 2000 @70mph.
It's a LOT peppier than the tired 350, but could use more torque on hills instead of downshifting.

Fast forward to present..
Picked up a Ebay HEI distributor and had a friend rebuild a quadra-jet for my setup.

Got the fuel lines routed, but having a little trouble getting the wiring right.
Got bloodshot eyes watching all the TBI-Carb conversions (all automatic trans though) and snipped the purple w/white tracer wire from the orig 4-wire distributor connector going to the 'now' tach side/terminal on the HEI (next to bat 12v)
It energizes the fuel pump and pressurizes the carb, but don't have dash tach showing.
Also, turns over fine but seems like it won't actually fire/start until the key is turning back to RUN.
I spliced a 12ga wire from A switched hot group of wires under the dash to the HEI.
I did this to make a theft deterrent switch after I find a good place to install it. BUT after watching all these vids, I might just go with the wires that energized the orig coil instead.

So, the only wire I cut was to the purple/white in stock the 4-wire distributor connector. ALL STILL THERE, loosely taped up.
Who can shed some light on how to get my dash tach back and the (full) 12v switched to BAT hot at HEI?
(opened the drawer for my timing gun to just find the gun and NO harness... Kinda have it timed by ear, but that won't cut it.
Yeah I know.. but need to tackle one thing at a time so I don't mess myself up
REALLY NEED THE HELP IN THE NEXT DAY OR SO, Since it's my daily
Thanks in advance.

Errol

Oh, and I really don't care if YOU like Holly better.. This is what I chose and have gotten drastic improvements with them VS other makes. I'm NOT writing this for a carb discussion..

[rockosocko]

Anyone?


from what I've read and seen on Youtube and here, the purple/white goes to the tach terminal of HEI. But it doesn't run my tach.

Thanks.