1965 Valiant ballast resistor question

[scott_s]

I needed to bypass the ballast resistor for a Pertronix installation.
Some idiot P.O. painted everything on the firewall, so it's kinda hard to trace wires.
I looked at the wiring diagram and, best I can tell, only one of the wires on the downstream side of the resistor goes to the coil.
My resistor has two male prongs. The plug going in has two wires, plug coming out has two wires.
I just made a jumper between the two plugs. What are the other wires for? Is this OK to run it like this?

 

[67Dart273]

You want to make sure that is a good connection and not going to short. Other than that "OK"

One wire is power coming from the key, and a splice feeding off the the voltage regulator. the other wire goes to the coil+ and the wire junction with it (usually brown) is the bypass circuit. You need that as the "run" circuit goes dead during starting and that wire then feeds full battery voltage to the coil

 

[scott_s]

Thank you!
I will make sure the jumper is insulated well. In fact, I'll probably gut a resistor and hide the jumper inside for a cleaner look. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

If I was running the Pertonix WITH the resistor and not getting the full 12V, could that have caused a low speed "hiccup"? Sort of a random miss, up to about 45 MPH?
I took a very short test drive with the jumper in place and it seems to be gone.

 

[dibbons]

I'm running a Pertornix on a '72 Satellite using the factory ballast resistor. I am not recommending this, but I don't seem to have a problem with it on the factory stock 318 wired that way.

 

[Bewy]

Double check the Pertronix instructions.
If you are using the factory coil, & your update is an inductive ign, the ballast res may need to be retained for the coil, but a full 12v red for the module.

There is a very good episode on Uncle Tony's Garage on why using Pert junk is a bad idea.....

 

[Murray]

During normal engine running, the ignition runs through the resistor cutting the voltage down to 9v. During cranking, that "third wire" bypasses the resistor and sends 12v to the ignition for better starts.

 

[scott_s]

I know there are varying opinions on Pertronix here. I've owned a bunch of air cooled VW's and ran the Pertronix for many years and many miles without issue. From near stock daily drivers to bored and stroked hi-po engines. I'll take a chance on it in this application.

During normal engine running, the ignition runs through the resistor cutting the voltage down to 9v. During cranking, that "third wire" bypasses the resistor and sends 12v to the ignition for better starts.

I believe this may have been the cause of my low speed "hiccup" or miss. I took it for a very short test drive last night and it seems to be gone. Longer drive today.

I also found this : Low Voltage/Bad Ground

"Voltages over 7.5 V will fire an Ignitor in a 12 V system. However, the voltage can be lower if the resistance in the circuit is higher than it should be resulting in misfires or no spark at all. "

I think that is what I was feeling.

 

[65 Dartman]

Although my wiring to the ballast resistor looks stock, it is semi-custom as I am running HEI which requires no ballast resistor. I kept the stock looking resistor but gutted it and run a 12 gauge wire from terminal to terminal internally

 

[scott_s]

Yes, I've seen several people mention that method. I'll clean this up and do it that way. I just wanted to make sure that what I was doing is correct.