wheres the ballast resistor??
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Most Fords of that vintage use a "resistive wire" on the ignition switch. It is usually pink. Stu
Back in the day....
Many cars had a resistance, a ceramic block (white - about the size of a pack of chewing gum. It had some "putty" looking stuff inside, you could see if you turned it over), which was in the circuit to the coil. You may not see it, 'cause it not there. Most of them were lost, tossed or removed over the years. Either with them or without them... cars seemed to run as good or better either way; (removing them did cause the points to pit earlier, but thats another story, besides points were cheap).
A lot of after market distributor/coil packages said use them or remove them, so the chances are better than 50/50 that you car doesn't have one. With CDI (capacitive Discharge Ignitions) just follow the package directions.
Some of the later models had the resistance wire. If you aren't sure whether the wire has a resistor or not, screw it ... instead of chasing the technical way (DVM measure resistance, consult book for specs)...just cut the wire and run a equal size wire in its place. Probably for the best, since the stock wire is brittle and needs replacing anyway.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Beoweolf on 3/10/06 9:50pm ]</font>
Many cars had a resistance, a ceramic block (white - about the size of a pack of chewing gum. It had some "putty" looking stuff inside, you could see if you turned it over), which was in the circuit to the coil. You may not see it, 'cause it not there. Most of them were lost, tossed or removed over the years. Either with them or without them... cars seemed to run as good or better either way; (removing them did cause the points to pit earlier, but thats another story, besides points were cheap).
A lot of after market distributor/coil packages said use them or remove them, so the chances are better than 50/50 that you car doesn't have one. With CDI (capacitive Discharge Ignitions) just follow the package directions.
Some of the later models had the resistance wire. If you aren't sure whether the wire has a resistor or not, screw it ... instead of chasing the technical way (DVM measure resistance, consult book for specs)...just cut the wire and run a equal size wire in its place. Probably for the best, since the stock wire is brittle and needs replacing anyway.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Beoweolf on 3/10/06 9:50pm ]</font>
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My Mallory Instructions said the Fords has to run some kind of Ballast resistor or risk burning it up. So since I have rewird my Fairlane with a Painless wiring kit I had to wire in a Ballast resistor. But the old one, which was the pink wire. Was located in the wiring harness under the dash.
thanks! so,what exactly do i do with that wire?cut it??
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2,864 Posts
Call Accell help line. I would guess cut it and replace with some other wire. But not sure?
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Cant you just wire as is?
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259 Posts
no,accel says to remove the wire or resistor or itll burn out the circuits in the distributor or something.Anyways,after checking with the voltmeter ive come to the conclusion that someone got rid of it a long time ago.
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