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Coil, ballast, voltages

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Old May 21, 2015 | 01:50 PM
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Default Coil, ballast, voltages

Po wired the car, while it works, not too sure its correct.
Mallory unilite.
There is a ballast resistor in line with the original resistor wire. So, i get 7.5 volts at the br, and 4 volts on the coil side.
The 7.5 also goes to the dist. Mallory says it will work, but the unit prefers 12 volts.
Will the coil operate ok with 4 volts, or should i just take the BR out or the circut?
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Old May 21, 2015 | 01:54 PM
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I have a Mallory Unilite conversion in my stock distributor. It has been in the car for decades and does not use an external resistor, just the factory wires, remove the extra resistor. It works fine with the power coming from the resistance wire, 6,500 RPM no issue.

Last edited by MelWff; May 21, 2015 at 02:15 PM.
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Old May 21, 2015 | 02:07 PM
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Some electronic ignition conversions are designed to use the factory resistance wire to power their systems...but most of them want a straight 12 vdc for power. You need to check into your model unit to determine what it needs. If 12 vdc is required, cut the resistance wire off at the [fuse block] bulkhead connector...with about 3" sticking out for connecting new, non-resistance wire to feed the Mallory system. The resistance of that small wire stub remaining is of no consequence.
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Old May 21, 2015 | 04:10 PM
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Po wired the car, while it works, not too sure its correct.
Mallory unilite.
There is a ballast resistor in line with the original resistor wire. So, i get 7.5 volts at the br, and 4 volts on the coil side.
The 7.5 also goes to the dist. Mallory says it will work, but the unit prefers 12 volts.
Will the coil operate ok with 4 volts, or should i just take the BR out or the circut?
That's exactly how I have mine wired. Also remember that the voltage will increase with the engine running and continue to increase up to around 14+ as the alternator spools up with rpm. You don't want more than 12v with the Unilite. I did some testing long ago with using only the resistor wire and no external BR. At higher RPM, the resistor wire would go over 12v, so I went with the BR too. I've never had any problems with this setup.
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Old May 21, 2015 | 10:49 PM
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Interesting....
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Old May 22, 2015 | 09:16 AM
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Ok! Thanks guys! 50/50....lol
Ill leave it as is and see what happens.
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Old May 22, 2015 | 09:40 AM
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Mallory says you can leave it in even if it's not required and it won't hurt anything. I'd leave it in because it reduces the voltage to the coil to about 9V from what I've read on the Mallory site. If the coil receives a constant 12-14V i.e. no BR, the coil will over heat and won't last long. You need to get the p/n for the coil and check the specs. If thats a Mallory BR the p/n is 700.

Last edited by resdoggie; May 22, 2015 at 09:43 AM.
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