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Is it my Ballast Resistor?

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:06 pm
by pistol grip
hi guys long time since my last post, been out of town but here we go, last week driving to a car show my car lost power, my lights dimmed and i was stuck, a buddy of mine started to mess with my Ballast Resitor wires and it started , 5 minutes later again same symptoms we finally got the car to the show, got a new ignition coil all great no more problems, But.....in the last couple of days either my car starts right away, or it doesnt start at all or when it starts runs for 2 to 4 minutes and it turns off,....BTW my mechanical knowledge id very limited, Thanks, Steve

Re: Is it my Ballast Resistor?

Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:20 pm
by Pops
(this is landon1...at Pop (my dad's) house haha) sounds like ignition to me...when my car had a problem running and starting right, the vacuum advance wasn't working on the distributor...i replaced the distributor with a electronic HEI style one and it is great...doesn't look original,but it is much better than the old points set-up...

at first while reading it almost sounded like a fusible link - that's another issue i had on a long trip just out of high school...driving along, car started running like crap, lights dimmed, then the fusible link wire melted - kinda scary

Re: Is it my Ballast Resistor?

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:47 pm
by 1fastrunner
By saying not starting, is it turning over and not starting? or not turning the starter? I had this problem and it was my solenoid(sp?), some time later my starter just kept going, while I was driving, and wouldn't stop until I unhooked the battery.
Jim

Re: Is it my Ballast Resistor?

Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:37 pm
by JosephGiannini
this could be indicative of a ignition problem with points. i believe this sounds like a bad condenser coil which comes with points. I would replace points. However if it was me I would upgrade to a accel optical points elimator kit.