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I have a 1959 that would not start. I traced the problem to a cracked coil balister. I put a new one in and it also failed,the second one I put in seems to work and the car started right up. I only ran it for two or three minutes and noticed the ceramic balister really got hot so I turned off the engine so I would not fry the second one . My question is should they get real hot to the touch. What else should I be looking for . Thanks Rick
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Re: 1959 coil balister
Yes, the reason for the ceramic insulation is because they get VERY hot. Consider it normal.Bill Clupper #618 -
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Yep, ballast resistors DO get hot with the worst case being engine off/ignition on. When the engine is running there's a lower current duty cycle since the points are opening/closing...
Also, it's possible to have a problem with the ignition wiring that aggrevates ballast resistor heating. If the wire from the ballast to the coil has chaffed insulation where it runs beneath the distributor shield, it's possible you can be sporadically shorting the ignition primary circuit to ground.
Do a good visual inspection to insure there aren't wiring integrity problems on the run from the ballast to the coil...Comment
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