Smoking ballast resistor ain't a good sign...huh?

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53ryder

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Couple days ago I spent $5 at Oreilly's and bought a new ballast resistor for my '65 Dart. While trying to get the Dart started today, still working on timing, smoke started to come up from the resistor. Took it off and out the old one back on and continued trying to get the Dart started. Guess sometimes 'new' isn't so good!


Glenn
 
I have heard of them smoking a little when first energized, as it's burning off any oils from the manafacturing process. Was it still working when you removed it? would your car still start fine?
 
fanofpetty said:
I have heard of them smoking a little when first energized, as it's burning off any oils from the manafacturing process. Was it still working when you removed it? would your car still start fine?
Click to expand...

4spdragtop said:
Yep them things get very hot, so it could simply be like FOP stated.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
If you left the key on for "a length of time," with either

A Mopar electronic ignition

or points and the points happen to "land" in a closed position,

the ballast WILL heat up. Any grease, oil, etc WILL cause it to smoke.

IF you have points it is VERY HARD on them to leave the key on for a length of time.
 
I think it is normal for new ballasts to smoke for a while, even with the engine running normally. It is the same as dust smoking on the exhaust manifold (or home electric heater) if it has been sitting a while. There is a reason they put them in a ceramic package.

Do you have a post running about your "no start" problem? You will need a multimeter, in-line spark tester, alligator jumpers, and starter fluid for us to help much. Total cost ~$15 and useful for life on all your cars. I would spend maybe 30 min tops fooling with a points ignition before upgrading. If you have a 273 V-8, for $45 you can buy a new distributor w/ ignition module (ebay). If a slant, you must roll-your-own HEI, but easy to do with many posts. Points are a particular pain on a slant, down in the grub zone with little space.
 
There's a post somewheres about 'not starting'.

Anyways the engine just isn't 'catching'. Turns over very well. I thing it's timing issue (I hope). Anyways the gas side of the equation is been taken care of. New tank to replace old rusty one, new sending unit, new fuel line from tank to fuel pump, carb cleaned and rebuilt. Added a hotter coil (still have old one), new distributor, new plug wires. Still using old cap and rotor. Can replace if needed.

Yesterday and friend and I tweaked with the distributor trying to get timing right. Found timing mark on harmonic balancer, have timing light and remote starter. Engine just will not start....so far. Couple of times it seemed like it almost caught.

Not ready to surrender yet....but it may be getting closer.



Glenn
 
Maybe just to dbl chk your timing use a piston stop. If you dont have a stop, use a long piece of dowel or something that can go in the spark plug hole and rest on top of the piston without scratching anything. Turn engine over by hand to TDC, mark the balancer, turn engine by hand the other way, mark TDC again. Find the center of those 2 marks and that is 100% TDC. Your car fires probably somewhere 10-15* BEFORE TDC. Hope that helps
 
4spdragtop said:
Maybe just to dbl chk your timing use a piston stop. If you dont have a stop, use a long piece of dowel or something that can go in the spark plug hole and rest on top of the piston without scratching anything. Turn engine over by hand to TDC, mark the balancer, turn engine by hand the other way, mark TDC again. Find the center of those 2 marks and that is 100% TDC. Your car fires probably somewhere 10-15* BEFORE TDC. Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Agreed
 
53, what is the history of the problem? When/ how, etc under what conditions did it quit?

You sure it's not fuel as opposed to ignition?

What have you done to check for good hot spark?

If it was running, there is no reason to "tweak" the distributor unless the cam drive has slipped, and then you should fix that, not screw with the timing.
 
Have the points been adjusted? It might be they are not opening. That results in both no start, and hot ballast.
 
A bad condensor or a broken wire can ground the ignition and cause all these symptoms too.
 
can you delete the ballast resistor or is there a way to make them not go out alot. or whats a good brand one to buy?
 
The car started to run rough after I added some gas to the tank. The fuel gauge wasn't working then so I added 4 gallons of gas. Well that just stirred up the crap that had settled in the bottom of the tank. Car has been sitting for 4 years the previous owners told me. Well after doing some checking I discovered the tank was all rusty inside and adding gas surely sent some of the crap into my carb. So I replaced the tank, sending unit, cleaned out the fuel lines. Then added some gas and no luck trying to start. Then I removed the Holley one-barrel carb and with a friends help we cleaned it and used some parts from a rebuild kit. Put carb back on and still no catching/start.

So assuming that we did 'rebuilt' the carb correctly I then could only think that the problem is electrical. Maybe that's a bad assumption.

More later....off to work!



Glenn
 
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