The Ford Barn

Automotive Stud · 09-30-2013, 11:06 PM

What I've got is a '47 59ab motor with the stock distributor. I'm running the one piece crab cap, a big old square Mallory coil, and I'm running on 12v neg ground. The car has been on the road like this for about 7-8 years.

Yesterday I had it die on me on the highway. I have two problems that I don't know if they are related. It just shut off at 70 mph. When I costed over I saw it threw the fan belt off, but not the water pump/alternator belt, and I don't think it caused any other damage. It didn't get hot because I was on the highway. After getting it home I tried a test light on the coil, I don't show any juice on either of the terminals. I have a big mallory ballast resistor on the firewall, one wire goes to the stock ignition switch, the other obviously goes to the + coil terminal. With the key on I have power going into the ballast but the test light isn't even dim on the other side of the ballast. I thought I had it nailed down, but I switched in another new ballast from my dad's model a with the same setup and I still just get a ballast that is warm to touch and only shows power on one terminal. I'm at a loss now and welcome suggestions, thanks for reading.

09-30-2013, 11:06 PM	#1
Automotive Stud Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 903	Ignition problem, could use some insight. What I've got is a '47 59ab motor with the stock distributor. I'm running the one piece crab cap, a big old square Mallory coil, and I'm running on 12v neg ground. The car has been on the road like this for about 7-8 years. Yesterday I had it die on me on the highway. I have two problems that I don't know if they are related. It just shut off at 70 mph. When I costed over I saw it threw the fan belt off, but not the water pump/alternator belt, and I don't think it caused any other damage. It didn't get hot because I was on the highway. After getting it home I tried a test light on the coil, I don't show any juice on either of the terminals. I have a big mallory ballast resistor on the firewall, one wire goes to the stock ignition switch, the other obviously goes to the + coil terminal. With the key on I have power going into the ballast but the test light isn't even dim on the other side of the ballast. I thought I had it nailed down, but I switched in another new ballast from my dad's model a with the same setup and I still just get a ballast that is warm to touch and only shows power on one terminal. I'm at a loss now and welcome suggestions, thanks for reading.