|
|
Tech Question
Erik Bakko, Brooklyn, NY, 72 Dodge Swinger 318ci
Dear Mr. Mopar Guru,
My ballast resistors have an expected life span of 3 months in my Dart. I put 4000 miles on the clock in the last year. I'm not sure what this little gem does exactly, I just know that it protects other ignition circuits and I'm shot down without it.
Standard Ignition Products rate theirs as "universal". I've burned out two of those.
Mopar Performance has three different models (0.25, 1.0 and 1.4 ohm) Haven't tried these.
I just found my new Mallory cracked in the middle yesterday. Super glue, zip ties and positive thinking are keeping me up and running. This was supposed to be rated for 0.75 - 1.5 ohms and offer variable resistance. Seemed substantial enough but it may have cracked last weekend when I drove in a downpour on the highway for 5 hours. I'll ask about phantom dash leaks another time.
The car has a fresh'nd 318 with a new Mopar orange ignition box, 50 amp alternator, stock distributor, new Mopar voltage regulator, MSD Blaster 2 coil, new Moroso wires and Accel plugs. Other than that, nothing much is different than stock with the ignition. It starts and runs beautifully.
Please offer any thoughts you may have and what I might do to avoid having to waste my time thinking about this little piece of pottery. I just want to know what it does and get one (and a spare) that works.
Erik, first, I need to know what the battery voltage is at 2,000 - 2,500 RPM. If it is much over, say, 14.2 - 14.5 volts, that's part of the equation Offhand, the Blaster 2 coil, which, I belive, is designed for C-D or MSD ignitions systems, probably draws too much current when used in a simple switch-type electronic ignition (such as yours). Swapping to a stock coil and stock ballast would be the easy fix.
Otherwise, you're probably exceeding the 20 or 25 watts dissipation most ballast resistors are likely rated at. The only fix at that point would be two fairly high resistance ones (>1.25O ) paralleled or 2 low- resistance ones (approx 0.5O) in series -- either would do the trick. But, with the Blaster coil, the "Orange Box" is almost certainly handling more current than it is designed for and is next in line to take a bullet.
There's only one other thing I can think of: Possibly you have some wiring error so that the ignition-run circuit (the ballasted one) is also feeding something else; therefore, too much current would be flowing through the balllast. The test: disconnect the ballast and be sure no other circuits have stopped working.
Rick
| Next | Index | Previous |
|---|