the guy asked a question about the ignition resister! And you guys have to argue about it??? Go argue with your Wife!!
It is a bit tiresome how ignition discussions seem to turn into points vs. electronics discussions so often. They both have their pros and cons, as I understand it they both were around in 1965 (I wasn't) so both can be argued to be traditional, and they both do the job pretty well most of the time.
So for you guys that still run points, what brand do you still trust? I see so many chinese made points, I'm wondering that someday I'll be forced to go electronic.
I just came across this thread. I have been using a Hunt Vertex HEI in my roadster (30K miles so far). This is from their Installation Instructions.
You have 18 years on me, and for the life of me I can’t recall what year my 2nd Camaro was. ( and it wasn’t 48 years ago!!)
Here's my ballast resistor story. 1964 my avatar, first car at 15. I purchased the 57 without engine trans, go to the junkyard and buy a 348 tri-carb with 3 speed manual trans. I did a spray can rebuild and added chrome air cleaners. Myself and a neighbor bolt it in, added a Hurst shifter, 4:11 rear pumpkin, gl***packs, street slicks, 3 gauge panel under dash, sun tach on dash. I was pretty proud of this car, used up most of my saved paper route, gr*** cutting, snow shoveling cash, my first hot rod car of many. I drive it a short time and it runs bad, points burnt up, I go to the local parts store, purchase new, replace points/condenser, short time the same thing. Hmmmm. The man at the parts counter asked me, did I check the ballast resistor, my reply, what is that, he gets one and tells me where to look for it. The car did not have one, I buy and put one in and magic no more burnt points. The good old days, a parts counter man that had some knowledge. I have been blessed all through the years to meet great people that shared their skills/knowledge and part of my success in various arenas was due to great men that shared. I've always shared my skills/experience when asked if the person was a sincere decent person.
Wow. We should just call these topics "Another Preparation H issue" cuz it does seem like a bit of discomfort for some in that area. Lots of confused wives tale in it too. Pop quiz, who knows why early GM stuff had 2 wires going to the hot side of the coil? You there, go ahead... "Because one was 12V start and the other was 6V run." Outstanding, here's your oatmeal cookie coupon for the cafeteria. How was that 2nd wire 6V, and not you you had your chance. "It was a resistor wire to make the coil and points last longer powered by the RUN terminal on the key switch, and 12V was on the start side of it." Well done, here's your coupon. It was dropped when they went to that big ugly HEI, a normally very reliable distributor once the growing pains were overcome. All it needed was a nice #10 wire so the components would always have full volts. Later they found those wires on the pickup coil would eventually break from twisting on the advance plate all the time in that hot spot. If the engine having a visual Quasimodo deformity in it doesn't bother you it's a hard unit to beat, simple to hook up, reliable for 10s of thousands of miles, and in my experience (MSD enhanced) provided clean spark all the way to 7600 RPM. SO, let's review. HEI? 1 big #10 powered by both key start and key run, you're finished. In an oldie, you need to replace that key run resistance wire so it doesn't burn out the electronic components due to low voltage supply. Which are better, points or electronic? Impossible to answer. All my old stuff has points except my old shovelhead. It has a Dyna S electronic, and no I'm not changing it. Flatty has a Mallory crab dual point, GTO has points, Packard 160 of course has points. I'm just "that guy" when it comes to that ****. If I were dropping an engine in a driver older car I wouldn't give much thought to the look of an HEI, I just know I wouldn't have to think much about it once it was all in. Something cool? Well, you know. Cl*** dismissed...
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