Mike :
Its fairly normal for the ballast resistor to smoke when it's new, sounds
to me like you had everything right to begin with. The resistor can go
either between the battery/ignition switch and the coil, or between the
coil and the points, makes no difference (on cars that don't have the
starter solenoid contacts, like the TR4). The smoke is because the
resistance element gets very hot (which is why it's encased in ceramic),
but the manufacturing process leaves oils, etc. on it which have to burn
off. My new ballast resistor has several hundred miles on it, and will
still smoke when the engine is not running (it doesn't get as hot when the
engine is running, because the points are open half the time).
The ballast resistor limits the current through the coil and points, which
is primarily needed by the points. Coils like the Crane Fireball take an
external ballast so they will work on newer cars that short out the ballast
while cranking, so the coil still gets full operating voltage.
My guess would be that the points got overheated from running the coil
without the ballast. You might want to clean them a little, but most
likely if you reinstall the ballast and Crane coil, it will work fine.
Randall
59 TR3A
On Friday, June 09, 2000 7:23 PM, Mquinn698@aol.com
[SMTP:Mquinn698@aol.com] wrote:
>
> I just got my TR4 engine running after being rebuilt. At this point all I
> have is a frame with the engine trans and rear installed. The only wires
I
> have are the for the starter and a wire for the coil and the car is
grounded.
> I bought a Crane Fireball coil to replace the Lucas Coil. When I opened
the
> box I found a ballast resister. Never using one before I don't understand
> what it does or what it is for, can someone explain.
> The second part of this question is, I installed the coil and ballast
> resister following the instructions as soon as I plugged the hot wire to
the
> ballast resister it started smoking. I pulled the wire and double checked
my
> self and all seemed correct. I plugged in the hot wire again and more
smoke.
> So I thought I would see what would happen if I bypass the resister and
hook
> up the coil like the original coil. The car started fine twice. On the
third
> time nothing. When I scraped the hot wire on the coil there was no spark
as
> before. So thinking I fried the coil I put the Lucas coil back and again
no
> spark. I opened the distributor cap with the power to the coil I touched
the
> points with a screw driver, still no spark. I did the about 3 time then I
got
> a spark at the points and a spark when I scrapped the hot wire for the
coil.
> I buttoned everything up and car started fine again. I'm thinking the
crane
> coil welded the points slightly and I broke them apart. Now what? did I
fry
> the crane coil. Is or was the ballast resister bad? did I do something
wrong
> with the wiring (I had + from battery to resister, then from the resister
to
> the + of the coil and the - of the coil to the distributor.) HELP!! I
can
> build things but I am not very good with the electrical.
>
> Thanks in advance
> --Mike Quinn
> 67 TR4A
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