Re: Motorcraft Duraspark question...

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> " I installed a 1.6 ohm ballast resistor, a big ceramic job, bolted
> " to the inner fender (there is no resistance wire in my home-made
> " harness).  The damned thing gets skin-peeling hot -- easy 500
> " degrees.  I mean, peel-your-skin-off hot like the barrel of a
> " soldering iron.

> that doesn't sound right at all.  the coil shouldn't be drawing more
> than an amp or two, right?  so we should be talking only a few watts -
> hardly enough to get very hot at all.  otoh they must be ceramic for a
> reason...

I suppose I could ground the - side of the coil, and measure V
across the ballast, and therefore static current. I think it's
more than an amp, but I didn't think it was 10!

I picked 1.6 ohms since around 1.5 is what seems to be used by
others via google search.