Ballast Resistor D1110

[Nick M.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1111

Joe

Sounds like good advice to me. Thanks

[John D.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

I bought my correct NOS D1111 in the original box on ebay about 2 years ago. Wasn't cheap though. John D.

I often hear the term black dot on the D1111 ballast resistor. I understand some of us look to see that the black dot is in fact present. This is old assumed information but the truth of the matter is there is NO black dot on the real deal D1111 BR.
The black dot has been present for about 25 plus years on the service replacement D1111 though. In talking with Dan Holstein today I went over to the shelf and opened up an old service replacement one I bought from the local AC Delco dealer in the late 70's. It has a nice big black dot that appears to have been put on with a felt tip pen. But the SR BR has no shear in the usual spot.
The real deal one has a rust spot from spot welding that appears from several feet away to be a black dot. It's a spot weld-no dot. Rust.
If you see a black dot quickly write down SR on the judging sheet and move on. Now I am talking the 63 era. John D

[Jack H.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

I too often hear various judges state the factory original ballast resistors had no color code ID marks on them (blue stripe for D1110, black dot for D1111) and agree you'll find those marks on Service sourced replacement parts....

But, when I question those who say the factory used parts lack these marks, I only get 'foot shuffling' answers and no 'proof' as to why they have that opinion.

On the other hand, when I pull and read the GM drawings for these parts (see attached), the call-out for the color coded ID marks is clear and obvious. Note the attached excerpt from the D1111 part drawing cites the ballast resistor's revision history back to its intitial release date (9/29/54) and there is no change action to add/remove the color coded ID mark...

In the service channel, these parts were individually boxed with their PN's on the package. I'll bet you the factory bought them in 'bin lot' loads without individual packaging. Where would it be more useful to have the parts color coded (factory or service)? Remember, the St. Louis final assembly plant also manufactured passenger cars and trucks....

So, if the factory original ballast resistors weren't color coded then they either had a different PN to distinguish them from the part drawing OR St. Louis had somebody assigned to receive the resistors and remove the ID marks (kind of dumb, eh?).

[Stuart F.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

Since my last reply on the 8th, I went out to the garage and looked at my 63 as well as my parts boxes. I found a replacement NOS box with my original D1110 in it. Sorry, I guess I was mistaken and did replace the original probably back around 1976 when I was going through a visual upgrade replacing things because they looked crudy, but at least I saved all the old stuff. At any rate, the original from mine has NO paint I.D. on it (no Blue stripe, no black dot), just a rusty spot weld. I am now going to go back and try to clean up these parts.
Who would of thought that a simple thing such as a ballast resistor could generate so much interest, a real good thread!

Stu Fox

[Nick M.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

John

Are there currently repops out there with both the D1110 and D1111 ohm resistance as was original as well as was SR?

[Nick M.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

Stu

I agree. I did not think there was so much to learn about a ballast resistor. The wealth of information that appears out of nowhere on this site is amazing! The best part is that most of it is good information from those in the know.

[John D.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

I too often hear various judges state the factory original ballast resistors had no color code ID marks on them (blue stripe for D1110, black dot for D1111) and agree you'll find those marks on Service sourced replacement parts....

But, when I question those who say the factory used parts lack these marks, I only get 'foot shuffling' answers and no 'proof' as to why they have that opinion.

On the other hand, when I pull and read the GM drawings for these parts (see attached), the call-out for the color coded ID marks is clear and obvious. Note the attached excerpt from the D1111 part drawing cites the ballast resistor's revision history back to its intitial release date (9/29/54) and there is no change action to add/remove the color coded ID mark...

In the service channel, these parts were individually boxed with their PN's on the package. I'll bet you the factory bought them in 'bin lot' loads without individual packaging. Where would it be more useful to have the parts color coded (factory or service)? Remember, the St. Louis final assembly plant also manufactured passenger cars and trucks....

So, if the factory original ballast resistors weren't color coded then they either had a different PN to distinguish them from the part drawing OR St. Louis had somebody assigned to receive the resistors and remove the ID marks (kind of dumb, eh?).

I agree with the various judges that the dot was not typical of mass production. Yes I am going to agree that the black top is a minority thing at best and was not used extensively. Original pics of low mileage cars-pics take in the 60's give to me by Michael Hanson and others do NOT show any black dots on the BR. JD

[John D.]

Re: Ballast Resistor D1110

John

Are there currently repops out there with both the D1110 and D1111 ohm resistance as was original as well as was SR?

Sorry old friend but I don't pay any attention to what the repops have. I was not even aware that there was or is a repo that has the same configuration as an original. Others will have to answer. Meanwhile I prefer the real deal.
Like I said before make your own. Buy an over the counter DR one and then just swap out the brackets. Slice the back side with a dremel or whatever. Get the bracket zincad and then tack weld it back together. Last year we did three of them. As the boys said here that BR was used on boo coo cars. Shouldn't be hard to find some donor ones. But time is running out for the show. My car is in pieces too. Shoulda left it alone though. John

[Wayne M.]

More info -- scrap yard Ballast Resistor D111x

.... On the other hand, when I pull and read the GM drawings for these parts (see attached), the call-out for the color coded ID marks is clear and obvious. Note the attached excerpt from the D1111 part drawing cites the ballast resistor's revision history back to its intitial release date (9/29/54) and there is no change action to add/remove the color coded ID mark...

Jack, nice GM info. Here's 2 pics off a "pick-ur-part" car; can't remember what model or year, but definitely not Corvette. Firewall was sprayed black -- tried to remove paint so obviously any/if color codes also gone. It's obviously not repro and probably (IMO) not service.

A few points: compared to John DeG's shot, I'd say that the Delco Remy stamping is smaller, and the mount hole is larger (0.34" dia); the GM dwg seems to show 0.28" ? Also, and maybe more pertinent, the tab on the mount bracket has more "squared" shoulders with sharp corners.

Notice the concave on the back side (0.02 max, per the dwg.) The band is exactly 1.0" wide

[Jack H.]

Re: More info -- scrap yard Ballast Resistor D111x

There are four 'flavors' of mounting tabs: (1) gently rounded with tear-away tab, (2) gently rounded without the tear-away tab, (3) almost straight cut with tear-away tab, and (4) almost straight cut without the tear-away tab. The one you show is #3...almost straight cut with tear-away tab.

Most judges simply look for the presense/absence of the tear-away tab and let either style of band pass judging scrutiny for '66 and earlier cars. So, this is a nice scrap yard find ONCE you get it cleaned up and its resistance profile verified....