testing for the existence of ballast resistor in my car

[ford38v8]

Originally Posted by tubman

I only run conventional points distributors in my old cars. NEVER have I even considered the possibility of carrying a spare distributor.

I’ve found that the most important spares to carry are a set of water pumps, a distributor, and a carburetor. During my touring years through most of these lower 48, they each were changed out at least once. (Your mileage may vary)

[hueyhoolihan]

thanks again everyone!

did a little work on the ignition today and as it turns out i did have a ballast resistor in the traditional place and it was hooked up, and it was probably working as designed. i know it had continuity as the engine had been running and i had driven the car a few times. but...

as expected, it was a real PITA to work on. and much to my surprise, it had three wires connected to it. two on one stud and one on the other that ran to the coil. i think the third wire (conclusion based on fiddling with the wires on the studs) was to provide power to the turn signal stalk, which i'm assuming is or was an aftermarket product. and IT created another problem...

the problem being that instead of the straightforward and simple task of removing one wire and placing it on the other stud (as so graciously suggested by pistonbroke), i was burdened with the proposition of securing THREE wires on one stud, and therein lies the rub. as neither stud was long enough.

but nevertheless i tried...and tried...and tried. but try as i might the connectors got in the way of each other and once positioned on the stud i could never get more than about half a turn on the nut, (this was all performed, BTW, with one hand holding three recalcitrant connectors on the stud, while holding the nut in place and then turning it, and at all times attempting to keep all three wires from turning with the nut. and did i mention that i'm 74, i was lying upside down under the dash with the brake pedal hitting me in the head and working practically blind while my other hand was on the floorboard supporting the entire weight of my upper body which is considerable?) before it would pop off and fall down my neck and under the floor mat. extremely frustrating! so after about forty-five minutes of this nonsense i thought that maybe i could remove the ballast resistor altogether and gain maybe a 1/16th of an inch of stud length which might just be enough to get the nut on a full turn, get a socket wrench on it (13/32") so as to crush down the unused spaces between the connectors and secure it tightly. which i did. i'll have you know that i accurately predicted how miserable it would be without any knowledge of the actual reasons as to why it would be. ...i just knew.

so now i'm prepared to remove my traditional coil and install a "Modern" canister style coil using my "coil conversion kit" which has just been delivered as i write this! we'll see how that goes. and if THAT doesn't work i can always try to install my 6v positive ground E-Fire distributor again for the sixth time, now that i've discovered that the most likely reason it failed previously is that i had a ballast resistor in the circuit.

BTW i discovered my E-Fire installation error the other day, by contacting the company by email and asking specifically whether or not a ballast resistor should be used with their 6v positive ground distributor and they responded that it should definitely NOT be.

and so, being upset as to why that was not specifically stated in the their advertising, i thought maybe firing off a withering email barely hiding my contempt for their lack of thoroughness would be an appropriate response, but before sending an email i may later regret having sent (BTDT) i immediately re-read, completely this time, the installation instructions. and low and behold, i found buried in one of the Warning: sections verbiage reflecting that which was conveyed to me in their email response regarding use of a ballast resistor. "don't use a ballast resistor" it was written in the instructions. hmmm...

so on second thought i'll have to put most if not all of the blame on me for THAT one. eh?

[Kens 36]

Oh, to be 74 again! If you just use the stock ignition, you could have left all those wires in their place.

Ken

[hueyhoolihan]

Originally Posted by Kens 36

Oh, to be 74 again! If you just use the stock ignition, you could have left all those wires in their place.

Ken

haha. funny you should say that, i had a composition professor say those exact words to me many times. i think it was a line from a joke that he had heard and found them amusing.

true enough about the resistor...i only removed it because i didn't know what state it was in and wanted to remove it as a variable in any subsequent tests. but more importantly, i recently found out that it MUST NOT be present for the 6v positive ground E-Fire electronic distributor to work properly. which i will probably now try to install again...sometime.

BTW, the '36 is probably my favorite old ford. i remember seeing one in an old 30's movie and remembered the dip in the front bumper, but hours and hours of research has never revealed anything.

[hueyhoolihan]

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