Ballasted coil

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Rich Wils
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Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

Having read comments singing the praises of the Flamethrower coil I ordered one for my newly acquired 1988 moke. Stupidly I ordered the 3ohm one thinking the system was not ballasted. Should I send the 3ohm back and order a 1.5 ohm or should I remove the ballast resistor from the wiring loom? I’m happy to do either.
Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

Does it have an actual ballast resistor? Or is it (( as I’ve found on some mini looms) a resistor wire ? Either way I’d be tempted to swap for an appropriate coil especially if it’s a wire resistor as that’s well hidden in the loom.
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Rich Wils
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

I’ll be honest I don’t know where the resistor is as the car is currently stored elsewhere and I’ve not had chance to look but I suspect it will be in the loom. I’ll go and have a good look on Thursday or Friday.
I will be changing the dizzy for a contactless one so i’m not worried about the lower voltage across the points.
Other than starting voltage and points arching are there any other advantages to having a ballasted system? And are there any disadvantages?
Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

If memory serves me correctly it’s a white/pink wire instead of the “normal” white one. That said it’s usually hidden inside the loom tape so you don’t know it’s there until you strip a loom, that’s how I found it. As to effectiveness, I don’t know, it’s all witchcraft to me and part of the inexorable march towards complexity :lol:
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Rich Wils
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

I had a good look today and I am no less confused. The unipart coil is for ballasted systems but the wire to the coil is white and not pink and white! Unfortunately I only had an inaccurate analogue multimeter with me so I wasn’t able to check the voltage at the coil.

Also I tried to identify the distributor, it is a Lucas but the only numbers I could see appeared to be 4287

The unit has an A+ clamp on the distributor and a pre verto slave cylinder mounted on the verto bracket operating a short armed clutch.
Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

That’s what I mean by hidden, the wire is white at either end with the “resisting” bit jointed in within the taped up section of its journey ( if that makes sense) I suppose that way it would prevent confusion and the cost of having to produce a specific wiring diagram for that model, they did seem to swap and change between the ballasted/unballasted system I think.
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Rich Wils
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

Thanks for all of you help Nigel.

Checking through other posts, I found this from 59protoype “Incidentally the other thing I recently learnt is that if you are running electronic ignition in place of the original points system you can widen the plug gap. With a CSI electronic ignition system on my Cooper S I have now gone from a 25 thou gap to 40 thou and the car starts and runs extremely well. The CSI Lucas look-a-like distributor was expensive but I consider well worth the money spent. Coupled with an Aldon Flamethrower coil the car is now running better than at any time since I bought it back in 1971.”

So I went to the Moss website where they sell CSI, they have an A+ dizzy with vacuum for an SU that looks to be the replacement for my car.
A foot note on the page says “Note: You must use the conventional (non transformer) type coil with a minimum resistance of 2.5 Ohms, such as our sports coil TT2981 (3.0 Ohms), Bypass the ballast resistor if fitted. The use of a transistor type coil will damage the CSI distributor and invalidate any warranty.”

So it looks like the original dizzy and coil will be consigned to the box of original bits whilst I give electronic ignition a go. I’ll run a new un-ballasted wire alongside the loom, so that can also revert to original if needed.
Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

Sounds good to me. If I get chance and can find it I’ll take a picture of said loom. I’m sure it’s upstairs somewhere
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Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

There you go. The tail end remains of a rather scabby wiring loom, but you can see the wire in question and I was wrong it’s white and pink all the way (and it says resistive on it!)

CA07D39C-0CFE-4BDF-B75B-07355E6B38C0.jpeg
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Rich Wils
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

Thanks for the Photo Nigel
Rich Wils
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Rich Wils »

Decision made, I will definitely go the non ballasted electronic ignition route.

I peeled back some of the loom yesterday to find the white wire crimped to a yellow wire, the loom tape was not original at this point. I also noticed that there was no additional live feed to the coil from the solenoid so the car doesn’t have the advantage of a separate 12v feed on start up, undermining the purpose of the ballast in the first place. I still haven’t tested the voltage with my fluke. But it needs sorting and bypassing any resistive wire will take some of the heat out of the loom and help prevent a meltdown.
Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Ballasted coil

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

Yellow :shock: That can’t be original
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