Ballast Bypass

[DARTLARRY]

I Know Someone Here Knows This Answer. I Have Worked On Two Chryslers In The Past Two Weeks. They Have Both Had The Same Problem. They Both Had Stock Ignition Systems Dist., Coil, Ballast. The Problem Is They Would Start And Run, But Missed Or Had Very Weak Spark. If I Bypass The Ballast With A Jumper Wire They Would Start And Run Great. I Know This Is A Problem And Can Overheat The Coil. But I Cant Get Proper Spark Going Through The Ballast. Could The Ballast Be Going Bad To Much Resistance. Maybe A Bad Ecu. Ive Seen Other Cars In The Past With A Jumper Between The Ballast, So I Know Im Not The Only That Has Had This Problem. I Would Just Like To Run The System The Way It Was Intended From The Factory. Any Help Would Be Very Appreciated.

 

[DARTLARRY]

Bump

 

[64ragtop]

Ballast resistors are seven bucks at Mancini Racing. How old are the Chryslers you've had the problems with. Nothing lasts forever. Have you checked the resistance of the ballasts? Should be near one ohm.

Just some quick random thoughts. All the best!

BC

 

[grumpuscreature]

Have you checked the resistance of the ballasts? Should be near one ohm.

Just some quick random thoughts. All the best!

BC

The ballast is needed since it allows a 6V coil to run on 12V. Chrysler did this for cold starting. When it is really cold outside the battery voltage is only 9 or 10 volts. When you draw current for the starter, this drops to 6 or 7 volts. If you have a 12V coil there isn't enough to run the ignition. With the ignition switch in the start position the ballast is out of the circuit and what voltage is available is applied to the 6V coil and you have a spark that is hot enough to fire the plugs. Once the engine has started and the ignition switch is in the run position, the ballast is in the circuit and there is 8 or 9 volts applied to the coil which works fine. Gotta love Chrysler engineering.
Check your ballast, if it reads more than 1.5 Ohms replace it. If it reads around 1 Ohm, replace the coil. Hope this helps.

 

[383man]

You dont want to run the car long with the ballast jumped as it can burn out the coil and ecu. Its not a 6 volt coil on the cars. The reason for the ballast resitor is to keep the current flow (amps) to a certain level so the coil wont overheat. All manufactors ran a type of resistor in the ign circuit when they used points. And they all bypassed the resistor on cranking becuse when the started draws 200 amps it pulls the battery volts down to around 10 to 11 depending on temps outside which will drop the coil volts and amps so they bypas the resistor on cranking and give the coil about 10 volts instead of about 7 that it normally runs with when driving. Ford and GM also used a resitor up into the early 70's when they used points also but they had a resistor wire built into the wire harness. And they both bypassed them by a small finger contact in the starter solenoid that supplied 12 volts to the coil while cranking. Mopar bypassed its resistor with the ign switch. Ron

 

[dc_mopar]

no need to mail order a balast resistor, they are available at any parts store, since they were used on all chrysler cars for about 30 years. but for a quality part go to Napa or Carquest. Doug