"Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

[Mark H.]

I just bought the "ignitor" ignition system that allows you to replace your points with an electromagnetic setup. I also bought their 1.5 ohm coil. (I've been told it's a great replacement for the stock hardware). Problem is that the coil instructions say that the resistor between the ignition (key) and the coil must be removed (instructions for the electromagnetic hardware within the distrib says the opposite - go figure. I called the manuf and they said remove it..).

Question is where is that resistor ? '63 (mine is a '65) shop manual shows a resistor coming off of the ignition/key and says the resistor is "integral to the wiring harness". Sounds tough to get to ....? THoughts ?

Thanks,
Mark

[John D.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Mark, ON TI setups a ballast resistor is not used. I assume that is what they are referring to. The 65 wiring is quite similiar to my 63. Some call it resistor block, whatever the slang. It's on the firewall next to the master cylinder. If you don't have one then maybe your car was originally a TI car. Should be quite evident. White porcelain with zincad bracket. Mounted verticle, etc. If it isn't staring you right in the face that it's missing period and you don't have to worry about it. If you ran regular ignition points without this part you fried the distributor and coil for sure.

My 63 has an 087 coil with a D1111 ballast resistor. Therefore I am getting more juice to the ignition and maybe that is one of the reason the engine starts without a starter. John

[John H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Mark -

The ballast resistor is the white ceramic block in the photo below. The pink wire that comes through the firewall and connects to the bottom is from the ignition switch; connect the red wire from the Pertronix module to that terminal, and move the pink wire connected to the top terminal (the wire to the coil + terminal) to the bottom terminal as well. That will give you a full 12 volts to the module and to the Pertronix coil + terminal.

The Pertronix coil is one of the few that's designed to run on a full 12 volts; if you retained the original coil, it would still have to run off the top terminal, for reduced voltage operation.

[John H.]

Re: Photo I Forgot Above

Here's the photo:

[John D.]

Re: Photo I Forgot Above

John, I see you have an SR ballast resistor. Boy the judges are looking for the real deal BR's. Latest nitch the past year or so. We are pulling a neat trick back her restoring BR's for the show cars. You take a dremel and slice the back of the strap and then the porcelain falls out. Next you get the bracket zincad plated and attach it to a nice NOS SR resistor and then zap the bracket back together. Looks nice and original. A lot of cars used the correct configuration BR in the olden days. Better than going on ebay and paying mega bucks for a NOS like I did for my 63. John D.

[Mark H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Thanks John D. and John H. Yes I do have the white porcelain thing on the firewall (I always wondered what it was). Mine has a red/blk wire on each end of the resistor, which I assume is equivalent to the pink wire that John H. talks about.

What I'm going to end up with, in order to bypass the resistor, is (just to restate what you guys already have) :
1 The black wire exiting the distributor will go to the neg coil terminal
2 The red wire exiting the distributor will go to the bottom of the ballast resistor
3 The red/black wire coming from the ignition switch that currently goes to the top of the resistor will be moved to the bottom of the resistor (along with #2 above), effectively removing the resistor and directly connecting the ignition switch to the (+) terminal within the distributor

Let me know if I have anything wrong here. Note : I measured the resistance of that resistor and it is only about 2.3 ohms.

Thanks again !

Mark

[Mark H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

One last thing I wanted to ask was should the 1" long "beer can" that sits next to the coil remain after hooking up the Pertronix coil and ignitor ? In stock form, this can's single lead hooked directly up to the (+) side of the coil.
(what is this "can" anyway ?)

Thx,
Mark

[Jack H.]

So....

how are you duplicating the running changes Delco when through with the ceramic over time? None of the currently available licensed reproduction ballasts are correct....

[Jack H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

You can do it more simply.... If you want to bypass the ballast resistor, simply pull ALL of the wires that attach to the ballast under ONE screw terminal and you're done! You've essentially got the ballast resistor 'hanging' in the breeze now...

[Dan H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

John, I thought 63 SHP cars had 091 coils like my 63 340 HP had? #385 resister etc. Maybe yours is a 250 PG car?

[Duke W.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Or if you want to keep the wires on the same terminals, I think from the back you can solder on a piece of 12 gage wire to short the resistor, and this can easily be undone if you go back to a point ignition or just want to eliminate the ballast and sell it.

Duke

[John D.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Dan, Hey nothing wrong with a PG car. That's what you need than you wouldn't have all the FI trouble running all over the desert with your 64 old friend.
Someday they won't be any more 63 carb cars and then those thing will be worth a fortune. I helped judged a 250 Hp tanker last summer at Auburn. Was really a neat car and had the correct 087 coil as well as a big tank behind the seat. John

[Mark H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Gentlemen. I'm still able to have problems here - at least I can't measure 12 V anywhere (note the car was running fine with the old/orig system, so I decided to "improve it !"). All of the replys I've gotten on this seem to be the same, so I went with the easy route that Jack suggested which is to place both wires attached to the ballast resistor to only the bottom terminal.

Here's my current setup

1 - I've got both of the wires that were on the ballast resistor (1 on top, 1 on bottom) now both on the bottom terminal, effectively eliminating the resistor.
2 - I've got the red wire that exits the pertronix unit inside the distributor
going straight to the positive side of the coil. Also on this post remains the 2 wires (both red/blk)that were originally there which feed directly into the firewall's harness.
3 - the black wire exiting the distributor/pertronix unit goes to the neg terminal of the coil. That is the only wire on this terminal.

Note: during all of the attempts (per various emails) I have had the coil-to-distributor wire disconnected since I have my spark plugs out. I have read/heard that you can fry the new coil/distrib hardware if you turn the ignition on with the plugs not firmly grounded, so hopefully by me removing this wire I avoided this.

Thoughts/ideas appreciated

Mark

[John H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Mark -

Use the bottom illustration in the photo below.

[Mark H.]

Re: "Ignitor " ignition - revoval of resistor ?

Thanks John - working good. I assume a little voltage loss is OK. I have 12.4 V at the battery and 11.8 V at the coil. Q : Is it normal for a "tick" sound to be heard (with this ignitor coil setup) every time the ignition is turned off (can't imagine why this would be)? I think it's coming off of the bypassed resistor.

Mark