dont know, there was not a ballast on the coil when I purchased the car..Is the system ballasted? A ballasted system would only supply 9v when running.
Ballast resister is hidden in the loom on our cars. Best way to test is turn on ignition and use a volt meter on the low tension side of the coil. If 9v its ballasted and the electronics will have a hard time with the that in the new distributor. If it’s 12v it’s not ballasted and the problem lies somewhere else.dont know, there was not a ballast on the coil when I purchased the car..
there is a spare wire in the loom at the coil...
Peter
Is your car a series 2? From my experience the wire going to the coil is pink/white and is a ballast wire. It has a higher resistance resulting in 9 v to the coil. The second wire comes from the starter, so that when the starter is hit the coil gets a full 12V. See if your system requires 12V or 9V (my lumenition system is happy with 9v) Try running a temporary wire from the powered side of the fuse box to the coil to give 12v and see if she fires. I ended up bypassing my 9v wire completely and installing a ballast resistor, because over time the ballast wire can degrade and supply insufficient voltage. Good luck.
Definitely S2 if 1976not sure if series one or two?
mine is a 1976, P6B, V8, auto box, 4 door sedan.
Hey Butter fingers,hi there,
did the test with a meter and had 12 volts at the + side of the coil and nothing on the minus side.
Is that normal with the ignition turned on?
The spark is very weak and engine will not fire , even for a second, would have thought that having 8 , one-would catch alight?
Have not had a reply from simmonbbc (power-spark) people!
Peter
Q : when getting number one cylinder on TDC to set up dizzy cap and timing, the rocker is removed and No 1 plug.
When checking the valves for both being closed when at TDC, there was no rocking as per normal valve set up.
Is this because the engine has hydraulic valves?
Hey Butter fingers,
You should test as follows:
If you have points fitted rotate engine until they’re closed. Then measure voltage across the two wire that would be connected to low tension terminals of coil. Do this with them disconnected from coil. The ignition system switches the ground on and off to energize the coil.
Yep, that’s not right! Sounds like the ballast resister has died. Rob1 suggestion is the way to go.did a power-spark recommended test by earthing the coil via the minus terminal and measuring the voltage at the plus terminal with the
ignition on, my result was 3.65 volts, should be 12 volts, so the conclusion is that somehow the system still has a ballest fitted somewhere, but ware?
its interfering with the new dizzy and coil.
How can I get rid of the ballest thing?
yes..sorry if I am wrong in thinking but is this a new install of a electric ignition kit ?
I made a massive mistake with mine I did not disconnect that battery before fitting then wondered why there was no spark its a absolute must
to disconnect the battery before fitting