Anyone know where it's hidden on a 1973 2000TC?
I've just bought an Ignitor electronic ignition kit and Flamethrower coil and the instructions tell me to discard the ballast resistor, something that's probably easy if I can find the damned thing.
Willy Eckerslyke (oss108no snipped-for-privacy@bangor.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
P'raps you ought to be looking in a previous owner's bin?
I don't now where they put them on the P6, but they are not always where they are supposed to be in any case. On my Triumph 2000, it should have been held by one of the bolts that mounts the coil, but it was actually under the nut at the end of the long bolt mounting the alternator. Look for a white ceramic object about an inch and a half long with a connector at each end, somewhere on the same side of the engine as the coil and distributor.
Hehe, no it's in there somewhere according to my voltmeter. (Less than
6v across the coil.)Thanks for the description Jim, knowing what it looks like should help. I'll have another look.
It's not one of those cars that uses a length of high resistance wire instead of a separate resistor, is it?
The clue is that two wires go to the same (SW) terminal of the coil, and one is, iirc often pink. The other one is the bypass wire, connected to the starter solenoid.
Uh-oh, you may be right. There are two wires going to the +ve terminal of the coil, both white and yellow. The wiring diagram in the Haynes manual shows one going to the ballast resistor and the other going to a common point. I don't have it with me at work, but wouldn't be surprised if the solenoid is also fed from that common point.
I do have the choice of leaving the coil and ballast resistor as they are and only fitting the electronic ignition kit, but with the kit fed directly from the ignition instead of from the coil, but it'd be a little messy.
The other choice is of course to leave the whole system as it is, but I was impressed with the Ignitor I fitted to my Triumph Vitesse and don't like fiddling with points.
Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone.
If it's not obvious and beside the coil, likely resistance wire in the loom. But most aftermarket electronic ignition systems are perfectly happy with a ballast resistor - it helps limit peak current. Indeed Mallory advise the fitting of one if there wasn't one originally.
Yes, I'm pretty sure you're right.
You're right, the Ignitor kit says leave the resistor alone and just connect to a different switched positive. It's the fancy coil (Flamethrower) I bought with it that's more fussy. So I'll keep the standard coil instead.
I assume the Flamethrower coil incorporates its own, hence the problem.
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