Ignition coil

Ohmess

Ohmess

I wanna DRIVE!
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I recently replaced my ignition coil, plugs and plug wires without giving much though to Bosch coil variability (I instaled what La Jolla recommended).

My car is a 72 carbed automatic, with Weber DGAs (I think) in place of the original zeniths. I still have the original dizzy in the car.

My car had a balast resistor, which I left in the circuit with the coil. After some light reading here, I think I made a mistake.

Resistance on the coil measures 3.5 ohms, so the coil has a built in resistor. I want to confirm that this means I should remove the balast resistor from the circuit.
 
Hi Chris, yes, I have the same set-up, run it w/o the external resistor. Are you still running points? the Pertronix is less than 100 bucks and just makes things easier. I have an old timing light but I need to get one with a dial in advance for best tuning. I think your carbs should be good and yes, they are the ones you mentioned. I'm having a pair of Zenith's rebuilt so in a while I should have 2 sets of Zeniths if you want to try them out just for comparison.
 
She still has points. (Triage on my coupe has been tough.) I had been thinking I would check dwell and timing before Pertronix install, but got sick of bumping the starter 42 times trying to set points without a remote switch.

Pertronix will go in next weekend (and I bought a remote starter switch).
 
With Pertronix you won't need the starter switch becuase dwell is no longer a factor. Check the instructions to see how you wire it on a system with no ballast resistor.

Ohmess said:
She still has points. (Triage on my coupe has been tough.) I had been thinking I would check dwell and timing before Pertronix install, but got sick of bumping the starter 42 times trying to set points without a remote switch.

Pertronix will go in next weekend (and I bought a remote starter switch).
Click to expand...
 
Would going from red to blue coil be a worthwhile update? I figure maybe one less thing (external resistor) to go wrong.

Then if going w/blue, you'd need a different petronix kit than what'd you'd get if you had a red coil????
 
From a few forums I have noted a common opinion that red coils have more spark capacity and more reserve voltage than blue ones.

Now whether your ignition system takes advantage of that and makes a noticable difference is debatable.

I run a german bosch red coil with 1.8 ohm resistor. I've never seen external ballast resistor failure as a common issue to worry about. For blue you have to make sure your car doesn't have the resistor wire that came with some later cars.

Pertronix model # vs red or blue is not an issue, just needs to be installed correctly.
 
Since this thread has been resurrected, I will update what I have done. I switched back to the red coil and ballast resistor when I installed the 123 distributor.
 
Ohmess said:
Since this thread has been resurrected, I will update what I have done. I switched back to the red coil and ballast resistor when I installed the 123 distributor.
Click to expand...

Tell us if you notice a difference with the 1-2-3 Ignition.
I have the programmable one but so many changes were made that I could not say how much difference the new dizzy made. The car runs incredibly well!
Power out the wazooo:mrgreen:
 
Hey Stan - not sure yet as my voltage regulator is shot, and with more than 19 volts running through the system I have only run it for less than a minute at a time. She fires right up and is smoother, but once I get the alternator repaired and adjust the carbs, I will know more. Initial impression, however, is very favorable.
 
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