What effect does coil primary resistance have? I have a pertronix in my dizzy and it says 1.5 ohms are needed for a v8 and 3.0 ohms for 6 and 4 cylinders. My current accel super stock coil has a primary resistance of 1.4 ohms.

I have a nice E-core style coil that I would like to install and run. But it only has a primary resistance of 0.35 ohms. Will this harm anything? It lists a secondary resistance of 8.5K ohms. What does that mean?

And where does the pink resistor wire come from in the truck? I'd like to cut it out and use regular wire for full voltage.

 

Partial answer. Should be no difference between 8 cyl and 6 cyl wiring. Secondary resistance is between center post and pos or neg of coil. Resistor wire originates at run position of ignition switch. fmc400 should chime in for the rest of your questions.

 

from the Pertronix instruction sheet from their webpage:

4. Eight cylinder engines require a minimum of 1.5 ohms of primary resistance. Do not remove resistors if the coil primary resistance is less than 1.5 ohms.

5. If your Ignition coil has the recommended primary resistance, remove or bypass all external resistors.

so using your normal coil without the resistor, vs using the E-core with a resistor...may be kind of a crapshoot.

 

Yea, my thoughts exactly. I'm just gonna leave it alone then.

But now I've got this big, powerful e-coil sitting on my shelf waiting for a job.

 

351, you have asked sensible questions and I will give you what I know and my advice.
The coil is a transformer. It steps up voltage. It has a few large wires in the 12-volt primary that carry high current- a few amps- and many secondary windings of fine wire that carry milliamps. The resistance of the secondary is of no concern to you. The spark plug arc caps off current.
The manufacturer specifies a primary resistance. That is the sum of the coil resistance plus the resistance of the much understood "pink" wire. The primary circuit resistance should not be less than the manufacturer's resistance. Guys go less and burn up coils for hot spark. Guys go more and end up with misfires.
This is my advice:
Get the manufacturer's data on primary resistance. It is a few ohms. Take the coil you wish to use to Radio Shack on a quiet afternoon. They will measure exactly on a good instrument the coil resistance and they will sell you for a few bucks the series resistor that you need to replace the pink wire. It should be a five or ten watt resistor. You will pull the ignition switch, run a #18 wire to that resistor that you will mount to the firewall and you will throw away the old pink wire. Then, you will know exactly what is feeding the distributor.
A digital voltmeter is no better than an analog sweep meter. A digitized display feeds off the same Chinese junk before the Chinese digitization. Do not trust any measurements off any Chinese electronics crap especially at these low resistance levels.
Feel your coil when you are done. It it is hot, do something because you will be left walking.
Forget flamethrower coils and hot spark and all that aftermarket crap. If the motor fires and runs on stock stuff you will not gain anything.
I hope this helps.

Semper Fi

 

2X John. As I recall 351 you work in an aftermarket parts store. I suggest trying a Ford style ballast resistor. Ford part number B8A12250A. Measure it's resistance and see if that falls in to John's equation. Chrysler's style was junk. Back in the day a lot of Chrysler,Dodge,Plymouth owners used to keep a spare one in their glove box.