Not to fire a dabate but to clarify....
The voltage and current are directly proportional to each other per Ohm's
Law of E= I/R, since the coil resistance is fixed.
The voltage by itself will not "fry" the points but it will be higher
current that the voltage brings with it.
The ballast resistor acts as a surge limiter for the in-rush current. It
can also be switched out at start-time to get a hotter spark.
By limiting the in-rush and thus peak current, point overheating/melting
is minimized, but it will still run (for a while!).
On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Mike Aube wrote:
> The idea of the resistor is to lower voltage at the points. The sticker on
> your new coil indicates an internal resistor. Voltage at distributor end
> should read between 6 to 7 volts. NO MORE THAN 7.5 or you will have some
> unpleasant surprises not too far down the road.
> Mike Aube
>
>
>
> From: Jim Lill <jpl@vectorbd.com>
> >
> > The purpose of the resistor in a breaker type ignition is to limit the
> > peak current through the contact points during the inrush period of the
> > coil's "charging". An inductor is a little like a capacitor in that
> > regard. Remember that you don't even get a spark until you open the points
> > and the magnetic field of the coil "collapses".
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat 08 Apr 2000 - 14:17:22 UTC