Confused about the ballast resistor

I love you guys. Really. I mean, you know, not LOVE but, you know, love.

And our water really is 70 PSI. I know, I put in the pressure regulator. Standard plumbing fixtures are guaranteed to about 90. But you can yoke them down to 40 with a ballast resistor - I mean pressure regulator.
 
ludwig":19tki9rt said:
I love you guys. Really. I mean, you know, not LOVE but, you know, love.

And our water really is 70 PSI. I know, I put in the pressure regulator. Standard plumbing fixtures are guaranteed to about 90. But you can yoke them down to 40 with a ballast resistor - I mean pressure regulator.
Me, too with the "love you guys" thing. But, not like, you know.
What he said. :beer: (but I still remember reading 6V on the end of that wire with no current flow - it was unconnected.)

ludwig, you've got 70psi water? I'm moving there. I wanna be able to nail the cats next door with my water hose, and there's not enough psi here to really reach them. :twisted:
 
I stand by my previous post. You have to energize the coil before checking coil voltage for any loss from a ballast. Not doing so will give full 12 volts on both sides of the coil.

I once put alot of thought towards the ignition system and came to realize that a coil designed for 6 volts primary and an equal ohmed ballast would charge (magnetically) faster than using a 12 volt coil without a ballast. This is good for high RPM's when the dwell time gets short and the coil current never reaches maximum. You need to have learned about inductance to wrap your mind around that statement.
 
The function of a resistor in a circuit is NOT the same as the function of a pressure regulator in a hydraulic circuit.

Resistor = orifice. Pressure regulator = voltage regulator.

Take your 70 PSI water and run it through a fitting with a really small hole. Put a valve after that fitting.

Measure the pressure upstream of the valve (After the fitting) with the valve open and closed - and tell me what you see.
 
ludwig":1lbmxr28 said:
Get a bigger Aqua Blaster with an electric pump.
Actually, I'm considering upgrading to the ol' .22, if that %^&* cat doesn't stop leaving presents in my yard and footy-prints on my windshield. :evil:

Or....I wonder if a pink resistor wire makes a decent snare.
 
To All, while on the subject of resistence wires, ballast, coils, etc., I have a couple of questions that maybe someone more knowledgeable than myself can answer!??? Someone on another website posted that "if you want the most out of an electronic ignition, a true 12 volt 'high' performance coil is needed." Question(s): What is a true 12 volt high performance coil rated at ??? Is 40,000 volts considered considered a "true high performance coil??? 60,000 volts????

That person also stated that "if you don't put in a high volt 12 volt input coil, you can't open the spark gap over the stock."

What I have on my 200cid engine (w/ manual trans.) is the Pertronix 1 Ignition and a 40,000 volt coil (rated @ 1.5 ohms)! Somewhere (I believe it was on this website) I read that if you are not going to bypass the resistence wire (the pink one), that you should install a 1.5 ohm coil instead of a 3.0 ohm coil. After installing the Pertonix Ign. & coil (1.5 ohm), I also gapped by spark plugs to .040" (stock is .035") and advanced my timing from the stock 6 degrees BTDC to 11 degrees BTDC. Now I am left wondering if what the other person said, means that I should not be gapping my plugs to .040" instead of the stock .035"; and also whether or not I should not be advancing my timing by more than 5 degrees.

Thanks, Jim
 
If you look in the Falcon Performance Handbook, it will suggest that you can open the gap up to .055 for a real fat spark with Pertronix and a hot coil. The hi-po coil I have is the 50K Blaster from Pertronix. However, this takes the 12V straight and you'll have to sort out the pink wire conundrum posed above. Believe me, when I got that stuff all hooked up, I had to dial the idle back significantly. Once you do that, you can reset the timing with a light. Mmmmm... more pep, more miles per gallon.
 
Ludwig, thanks for the post. Maybe it is time for me to think about by-passing the pink resistence wire to get the full effect of the Electronic Ignition (Pertronix 1). Jim
 
I ran a separate lead of same sized wire from the hot side of the coil to back of the switch under the dash just before the dreaded pink wire (dum-dum-dummmmm) and connected it with a tap. Switched 12 volt like it says in the book and works like stock. I left the pink wire (dum-dum-dummmmm) where it was.
 
I dont mean to hijack this but this forum had me wondering about my resistor in the fact that I couldnt find it when I did my conversion so I had the dash apart today to wire in a factory console light and I found the almost white faded wire wich read "resistor". The question is now do i remove it? The set up has been working great for months I thought if the resistor was still there it would cause low rpm problems like Bort62's is doing but it hasnt should I apply the "if it aint broke dont fix it" saying here.
 
Many have had a pink-wireectomy. I left it in. No prob. On the other hand, my appendix blew up when I was 45 and I had it removed.
 
ludwig":uf39r0t5 said:
... the dreaded pink wire (dum-dum-dummmmm)...
lol, you're KILLIN' me!!! :rolflmao:

I picture two guys working on a car - with the sound effects - like a Monty Python or Mel Brooks sketch.

I'll never read a schematic the same way again. :lol:
 
ludwig":30hkxa5k said:
Many have had a pink-wireectomy. I left it in. No prob. On the other hand, my appendix blew up when I was 45 and I had it removed.

It just depends. The resistor wire will lower your voltage to whatever you hook it to. That may be a problem (especially if you use a GM module or similar) or it may not.

If it ain't broke don't fix it is great, but do it right or do it again rings more true.
 
james singleton":3edjfj76 said:
To All, while on the subject of resistence wires, ballast, coils, etc., I have a couple of questions that maybe someone more knowledgeable than myself can answer!??? Someone on another website posted that "if you want the most out of an electronic ignition, a true 12 volt 'high' performance coil is needed." Question(s): What is a true 12 volt high performance coil rated at ??? Is 40,000 volts considered considered a "true high performance coil??? 60,000 volts????.....

Way back in the early days of automobiles, Mr. Kettering and associates at the Detroit Electric Company (later known as Delco) detirmined by much experimenting that breaker points could handle a max of about 3-4 amps of primary current, much more than that and they had lots of trouble with burning, pitting, and poor reliability.

Since six volt systems were the norm, that put some constraints on the total system. Three amps at six volts was all you could put into the coil, therefore the coil had to be designed to work within those limits. Since R=E/I and we know the voltage = 6 with a current limit of 3, the primary windings of the coil had to have a resistance of about 2 ohms or slightly less. Then add as many windings to the secondary side to jump the output voltage high enough to fire a spark plug under compression load.

When the 12 volt systems were introduced, it made the job somewhat easier for the designers. Trouble is, the points could still only handle about three amps. Some additional resistance was needed to keep the current flow down now that we could push the current with twice as much voltage. Enter the Dreaded Pink Wire :twisted: Or ballast resistor. Or the coil could be designed with added resistance inside; some manufacturers chose this method.

Later, with the development of breakerless ignitions, the primary current could readily be increased. This was accomplished by reducing the primary resistance of the coil, some of them are as low as .5 ohms. This gives a LOT more current which allows the designer to build a much hotter output unit.

Why not just add more windings to the secondary to get more voltage? Because voltage isn't what lights the fire, current (measured in Joules) is what build the fire. And if we increase voltage via transformer action the CURRENT IS REDUCED as per Ohm's Law. So it is really a balancing act for the designer to get enough voltage with enough current to get the fire built. The higher the voltage input the easier this is to accomplish. Capacitor Discharge (CD) ignitions send 300-400 volts to the primary side of the coil. This gives a REALLY good zap!

High Voltage ratings sell coils, but high current delivery gets the job done.
General Motors came out with their famous HEI ignition first, Ford belatedly followed suit with the TFI some years later. The coils are functionally identical. Pretty tough to beat either one.
Joe
 
THAT is very interesting. And cool to know. Thank you.

If I read that right, 6V system had good spark and dim headlights. 12V got the headlights a lot brighter and pulled the spark down. Kinda funny how that works.
 
ludwig":1svpnoii said:
THAT is very interesting. And cool to know. Thank you.

If I read that right, 6V system had good spark and dim headlights. 12V got the headlights a lot brighter and pulled the spark down. Kinda funny how that works.

Don't add headlights into the discussion, it'll only confuse things. :lol:
See my "Smoke Theory" thread for more technical info.
 
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