The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Electrical woes on ignition side

Folks.

I have a 216 stovebolt in an Australian built 1950 ute, it was basically an imported Canadian chassis they locally turned into a ute

I bought it 6 years ago and it was converted to a 12v system “apparently”.

I don’t drive it a lot, in fact very rarely, however last week I have been driving it every day only 3-10 miles, it’s gone from running well to running like an absolute dog, to stalling at Interesections and everything else

I visually checked the points, they looked good, fuel system is good, I pulled the spark plugs and they were all sooty black

Now back to my earlier statement it’s been converted to a 12v system before I bought it, however I cannot find a ballast resistor in the circuit, I pulled the coil part number and it’s a tridon tic033, full 12v coil no built in resister, my spark plugs are ngk b6s

From my understanding I should have a ballast resistor, if I don’t it will burn the condenser / coil / points out, am I right or wrong on this statement, if I’m right, how come I’m 6yrs after buying it and just having problems now

Any help would be appreciated, she’s currently undriveable, it coughs splutters, dies under acceleration etc

Yes it should have a ballast resistor in a 12v system, but I'd be extremely suspicious of the condenser.

Every single one you buy today is absolute junk straight out of the Chinese factory. I've had more than one fail in just a few hundred miles.

The Stovebolt's unofficial mad scientist, Jon G, makes condensers that will last 200,000 hours. I have installed his condensers in every single one of my breaker point vehicles - 6v and 12v.

Here are the links:

To purchase,

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...85/gonew/1/the-improved-condenser#UNREAD


To learn about it,

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...oved-condenser-annual-update#Post1595503

I doubt that not having a ballast resistor would result in the problems you are experiencing but others will be along to give you a more concise answer.

That being said the combination of sooty plugs and the run quality issues you describe sound more like carburetor problems. I know you say the fuel system is good but I would double check that you are not over fueling.

Simso if you need one of the condensers please send me a PM. That's the only way I can sell them as there are no actual selling platforms here. By way of pure coincidence, the discount postage vendor I use has a scheme for sending a box of the size I must use to Australia so it will make it more reasonable by a notable amount. It could be your problem or at least a part of it.

You may never burn out the points with full voltage if you don't drive very often. The resistor wire or ballast was added so you could drive thousand miles on a set of points. The resistors would knock down the voltage to around 9 volts while running to extend the life of the points, but they all had a bypass during starting so they would receive full battery voltage. The higher voltage was to aid in cold starts, but due to starter draw on the system, the ignition still didn't get full battery voltage.

On my distributor machine, I check with full battery 12.6 volts, you can hear the difference in the spark when I add in a resistor. I have 8 plugs mounted so I can test cap, rotor, and wires, plus I can see the color of the spark at the plugs.

Your problem sounds like a carb issue, or old fuel issue. Sooty plugs is the give away clue. With out a resistor in the ignition system, the plugs should be running clean with the higher voltage spark.

Agree with Joe.

Looking back, I see you have a Rochester carb you rebuilt abut 5 years ago.

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...02767/identifying-carb-model#Post1402767

Sounds like the power valve is stuck. That is a common problem.