Balist Resister

[alvin stadel]

Old Gasser, Ron Lippert, said he couldn't get on the site again to post this so asked me to do it for him. Ron wants to know if he can eliminate the balist restister on his 57, 58 &59 Fords if he installs a coil with with internal resistance with-in the coil.

[Ford Blue blood]

Yes.  Just that cold starts will be a little more challenging.  The solenoid bypasses the ballast resistor to provide a "hotter" spark during the initial crank to compensate for the voltage drop caused by the draw the starter causes.

[xonewm]

I was "taught" the ballast resistor lowered voltage in ignition run position to increase life of the points.
I don't remember the source of this explanation. Too many years.

[Ford Blue blood]

It is Rich.  Lucas (the Prince of Darkness) has used internal ballast resistors for years.  Not sure why?  I know Ford has used external since shifting to 12V.  They have used both external resistors and resistive wire to keep the points from failing prematurely.  Both were bypassed by the solenoid during "cranking" (the "I" terminal). Computers and electronic ignition have changed all of that now

[59meteor]

I understand that the ballast resistor is there to provide full voltage for engine start up, and then drops down the running voltage , to make the points last longer, but, anybody know if it is still required with electronic ignition? I have a factory Ford Duraspark distributor , coil, and ignition module in my 59, with a FE 428 CJ, and I left the ballast resistor in place, but wonder if I really need to use it. When I took the 59 to the local dragstrip twice in the last 2 months, both times the engine seemed to lay down at higher RPMs, so as a test, I unhooked the ballast resistor, and connected both terminal with a jumper wire, so full battery voltage whenever the engine was running. Both times, the jumper wire cured the issue, and the engine ran better at the upper revs. But, for street driving, I hooked the resistor back up, and it seems fine in normal driving. I just don`t want to harm my Duraspark ignition, and it seems that on vehicles that Ford installed Durasparks in, they used a pink resistor wire, although I don`t know if that wire drops the current down as much as the external ballast resistor does. Any thoughts?

[gasman826]

 DuraSpark is electronic ignition, so it has no points to preserve. The module works on a full 12v.  On the 460s, the module even retards the timing to help with hot starts.

[59meteor]

My Duraspark module is the "blue strain" version, and has a white wire that runs to the starter solenoid, which I understand is a retard function for starting the engine. That sound right? I was under the impression that the pink resistor wire on a Duraspark ignition, was supposed to be there to reduce the load on the ignition coil, that sound logical?