how many volts?

camd64 said
thanks for the help guys. the reason I ask is because the way I have understood it the ballast resistor in the ignition system is there to lower the voltage to the coil under the run position so it doesnt fry. on my car i changed to a unilite distributor and a msd coil but i still have a stock single ballast resistor. on the one side i have between 13.5 to 14.0 volts and the other i have about 5.8 to 5.9 volts? it runs ok but Im thinking part of my rich issue is possibly a weak spark. the mallory manual says to use a resistor about in the 0.8 ohm range. the stock one was about 1.6. wouldnt that 0.8 ohm slightly increase the voltage to the coil for more spark energy? shouldnt the voltage at the coil be more like 8 volts running? sorry guys its been about 10 years since i really messed with electrical math. :read2:

The ballast is there to limit the current flow through the coil. The coil can only disapate a certain amount of power in the way of heat so to protect it from over heating the ballast is installed.

The power handling capability is a know by the designers and the primary resistance is known so, V = sqrt of (P x R). That will give the voltage at the input to the coil to keep it from over heating.

Also, most rich issues at idle are the result of not enough initial timing. When dialing in an engine you always have to get the timing sorted out before you start playing with the carb. The stock timing requirements on apply to stock engines anything with more compression or more cam will require the timing to be modified from the stock specs.