The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop ballast resistor ?

I was out driving this weekend and my truck just stopped. engine died, no back fire no chuga chuga. I opened the hood and all looked well, jiggled all the wire and checked the points. started back up and made it home.Yesterday afternoo I decieded to look at it again, wouldnt start. checked the usual stuff and nothing. last thing was to run a wire from the starter motor to the coil side of the ballast resister. started fine but died when the started dropped. ran a jumper around the resister and it ran ok . checked my connections and started without the jumper. But it has a miss at 1800 + and seems weak on power. Today will meter the vtg on resister and try a dwell meter for points. any other things to look for ? this is a 235 stock 57/58 engine.

Maybe just try and clean and retighten any electrical connections. See if that helps.

I looked at the wiring this am. Recrimped or replaced the connectors on that area. at idle i have 14.0 + - vts at input to resister, it drops about 2 vts across it . dwell holds steady at 30. still has a miss as the revs come up and a slight stutter when hels a 2k rpm. with a jumper across the resister it smoothes out. Looking around the garage for a old one to swap.

I don't think a resistor is going to change value with the change in RPM. You could have a coil problem though.

I thought coil, This one was on the truck when i got it. probably time for a new one. Is there a differance from v8 and i6 coils? I see two pn in the accel book. would watery gas cause this? we have been real wet last month.

Change the points and gap them properly.
Jerry

The points are about a year old age wise and have about 100 mi on them. would they go out that quick? and is 30 deg the right dwell? the gap is 16 th . If i have to order the coil will ord them also. I wonder if the resist could be rusted inside.

Dwell is what matters. It describes how long the coil charges or rises before collapse (which causes the spark in the secondary winding).

Gap is just another way to get to correct dwell. It's given as a spec because it's far more likely for the home mechanic (farmer?) to have a feeler guage than a dwell meter.

That your miss goes away when you bypass the resistor makes me think the coil is not getting enough current at that rpm to do its job. Maybe it has too low of a primary resistance?

Might get yelled at for this, but. . . bypass the resistor and drive it around for a week and see how it goes. The only potential cost to you is points burning up quicker.

Jason

Checked the dwell , its 30 and stays steady up to 3k. pulled the resister and dont see any rust., coil looks like it has seen better days.Will stop while in town and see if they have one. May pull the top of carb and look at the water level.

New coil, rewired the coil to dist and resister to coil . still has a stutter starting around 1200 rpm . looked in side carb and nice clean fuel. Dont see/hear any vac leaks. Stumped... sympathy and suggestions appreciated

sympathy offered have you made sure both the vacuum and centrifugal advances are working properly?
cleaned the points contact surfaces? only 100 miles in a year makes for oxidized surfaces on electrical contacts, especially in a humid climate

Bill

Yes, We were real humid last month. somewhere i have a point file . Will give that a try in a m . I opened the rad cap and saw foamy water, pulled the plugs and they all look nice ran a quick comp test and 125 on all cyl. no water in oil or coming out sparkplug hole. I can see the vac adv work and the cent moves freely by hand. inside dist is clean with no arc marks no shaft wobble.

better to use something finer than a point file on the points, like a business card or match book cardboard

foamy water .... might want to find out why, just cuz there's no apparent water in the oil doesn't mean there's no oil in the water

Bill

Cleaned and gapped the points. 31 deg on dwell no improvement, so I tried my timing light and it was way off . brought it to the bb and all is well guess i wasnt that good with the static adj. Thanks to all for the support.