JustJohn
08-19-2024, 05:31 AM
Putting a nearly complete original car back together and ran into a question about the change from factory wiring circled below. This car still has a points ignition and I already know this is an inductor. What I don't know is why someone made this change from the factory wiring. Any insight would be appreciated.
214501
Tim C
08-19-2024, 05:52 AM
That's a ballast resistor. Factory was probably a resistive wire, Ford and GM both used them, a special wire with resistance built in and a high heat insulation, they would burn up and open. Rather than daal with finding the resistive wire most places would swap in a Chrysler ballast resistor as shown and rewire with standard wiring.
The other common thing was if it had an aftermarket coil swapped that needed extra resistance, I've seen the ballast resistor added then as well.