At 11:53 AM 11/29/02 -0000, James Carruthers wrote:
>
>Firstly, what does a ballast resistor do? It came loose and started
>shorting out on anything negative yesterday.
James,
The ballast resistor is used to limit the current and control the voltage
to the low voltage input side of the coil. Without a ballast resistor,
either externally - like what you have, or one internal to the coil, then
if the ign. switch were in the on position and the points (which are no
longer used) were closed, would could burn up the coil, or part of your
wiring harness.
It has 12V from the ign. switch to it. So when it came loose, and allowed
to touch any metal (ground or negative) then you have an electrical short.
Not a good thing.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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