There's no crying in baseball and there's no hill's in Delaware! Unless your crossing the canal you should not be having any problems, maybe your emergency brake is on!!!

 

John
If your resister is like the one in my 46 you will have approx. 3 volts to the coil. It will vary from full battery voltage to 3 volts depending on if the points are open or closed. On your new parts, please keep in mind new does not mean good. I have a sun tuneup machine with a scope and also a distributor machine. I find very often new points will bounce at a fairly low rpm on the machine. The spring arm is not up to spec. I bought 4 sets of points for my 46 before I got a pair that would remain in specs. and fire properly.
On the scope you can watch new plugs and wires acting up and not firing properly. Skip Haney in floridia will rebuild your distributor, new bushings etc. and set it up on a old ford distributor machine and he only charges 50 on the old 46 type distributors and they are a real bear to set without a machine. No idea what he would charge on one like yours as it is a lot easier to work on. On the machine you can check condenser, vacuum advance and all other operations He also rebuilds water pumps and puts in high volume vanes increasing flow and makes running old flatheads cooler easier. NOT trying to give him a commercial just giving you info in case you didn't know about him. I have one of his rebuilt coils and pumps and am very pleased with his products. I am new here but been playing with flatheads for 50 years so if I can provide any info based on my experience am more than happy to do so. Keep after the issue and you will find the problem.
Good luck
Larry

 

A ballast who whatser ???? I have heard about this but only found it briefly mentioned in a couple threads.
When I replaced the old coil I took it in to NAPA and said " give me one of deees Please ". The one I got is 6V and says no external resistor required,..so ....... what can I say,
We got hills in Delaware Dennis. We have to,... otherwise... were do all the hillbillys come from around here.
Larry, hows about a resister 101 class for a newbie in need? Where would it be, if I got em. Do you have contact info for your dizzy tech ? Appreciate anything I can get,.....except wisecracks about the this great state of Underware........ I meant Delaware......Sorry Mr Vice President

 

Aren't those fantastic! I put the MSD "Drop and Drive" distributor in my 390 and it's just incredible. I still use a stock coil with it, but no ballast resistor, and no module. That and the "one wire" alternator were both well worth the investment - best things I put on the truck.

I've never had a ballast resistor go half bad, maybe you guys have. For me they just used to pop and the truck dies - instantly! But are there different ratings or resistance for 6 or 12 volt?

Getting past which original components that came with the truck are good or bad is one reason I decided just to rebuild and start over - all new. Then the stupid new coil was bad to start off. And under those circumstances you never suspect it - it's brand new, right?

J!

Johns a sharp guy he'll figure it out

Edit note! we are all writing at once. If your coil says "no external resistor required", then you don't need a ballast resistor. Question is do you have one anyway? It is a small porcelien block about 1/2 " x 1/2 inch and 2" long. It will have two metal tabs for wires. In the back you will see another round piece of percelien with heavy wire coiled around it. It would be somewhere inline on the wire that goes from your ignition power source (Ignition switch) to the coil and probably mounted on either side of the firewall.

 

Right here is a decent example of an external resistor. I am suspicious of your 6v internal resistor coil... they are rare enough in 12v. But if there is a ballast resistor in the wiring harness already, and you put a coil with one inside it on the engine, you'll end up with about 2v at the actual windings

NAPAONLINE®

 

Yep all writing at once - tee hee! Sorry Ross! Isn't it amazing how a few "clue words" will click the same switches in the audience.

How does it feel to be so popular John!

J!

 

Julie, With a name like John Smith, being popular is a given, just look in the phone book. You should see the looks I get when I sign in a hotel on vacation, with my 16, 17 and 21 year old daughters next to me . Popular does not cover it.
With this Flatty bugger case,...Pityfull would be most a more appropriate word. Thanks for having mercy on me.
I ran out an searched inside and out for the resister but found nada.Thanks for the photo Ross.

 

John
The resister is one of "henrys" ideas on how to save money. By lowering the voltage to the points they lasted longer and he would use cheaper contacts on the points. The resister, as current flows through it, heats, creating resistance to the current flow. The resistance to flow causes voltage drop. The 6 volts, having resisters, dropped the 6 volts through the ignition switch to approx 3 volts at the coil, depending on how long the switch has been on before you measure the voltage. It takes a couple minutes or so for the resister to heat enough to restrict the flow. If you in fact have a coil with a built in resister and you also have the ford one in line your coil is receiving very low voltage and would definitely misfire under a load, be hard to start, especially when the engine is hot.
Resisters are a Julie said normally good or bad, however one trouble with being old is you have seen a lot of the not so common things. Occasionally the wires will, where the wire coil connect to the tabs of the resister will get a poor connection and that poor connection generates more heat lowering voltage more, however still allowing current to flow, just lowering the voltage to 2 or 2.5 volts instead of the required 3. You test with a test light on the tabs. it lights indicating good, however with a volt meter will read low.
Albuq-F-1 has a very good picture of a later model resister. As I said I am not up on your model, however on the older fords the resister was square and under the dash located usually on the dash side of the firewall. I know a lot more about the older (46-48) cars than the trucks but most of Henrys ideas were the same no matter the application.
Hope is now clear as muddy water!!!!
Skip is
Skip Haney
Punta Gorda Fl.
Phone 1.941-637-6698.
He has links on a website owned by his buddy George Ford Collector

Larry

 

The F-1 trucks don't use any type of external ballast resister, I know this because I rewired my truck this past summer with an original style wiring harness and no where did I find a ballast resister in the system. The wiring is pretty basic. I forgot to add that along with all the other things I did hoping to solve the problem I also replaced the ignition coil with a 12volt Mallory even though I still have the 6 volt positive ground system and it works just great. In fact my flattie runs so good and strong that some think it's SBC and they are surprised when I tell them it's a flathead V-8. I still believe your problem is with the ignition system and installing a Pertronix is the way to go. You can't get a quality set of points or condensers anymore that's why I've given up on points and just go electronic. So far to date I've installed a least a dozen Pertronix ignition systems in cars, trucks and even a couple of boats without any problems with them at all. In fact my customers are impressed at how much better they run and start up. Not to brag but my flattie runs strong up or down hills and I don't have any problem keeping up with my buddies and their hot overhead V-8s. I know my dad built this 255 Merc engine over 25 years ago but what I don't know is what cam he put in it or anything else for that matter and unfortunately I can't ask him as he's been deceased for 22 years. Anyway I'd bet money that if you change to a Pertronix ignition system, a better coil, and vacuum advance unit it would take care of you problem.

 

John, I think you need a coil with no resistor.

 

i still think he needs to pull the flatty and send it to me ............... troubles are over then ... or begining depending which end of it your at !!!!!!!!!!

 

Yep!

With an internal resistor when one is not supposed to be on the system, that would be a component providing marginal performance - weak spark. And that would cause this type of problem (yet, so would other things).

But I have to ask the question: because this coil says "no external resistor necessary" does that mean there is one internally, or does it mean it is designed for your system and your system doesn't require one?

The Shop Manual says: "Place the spark plug end of a spark plug wire approximately 3/16 inch from the cylinder head. Run the engine at idle speed. If the spark will jump the gap regularly, the coil and the condenser are satisfactory." That's pretty direct!

Or,

Try the Fame Thrower John! No doubt there.

J!

 

It means it has an internal resistor.

That test isn't definitive in this case; we know it works "good enough" at low speeds where it can saturate completely.

A new, non-resistor universal 6v coil looks pretty cheap and easy to try.

 

Stopped in NAPA this morning,....Asked for a 6V coil that requires an external resister...........$16... Got it home,...took off the old coil,...took new one out of the box and its got 12V stamped on it,....called NAPA,..they can have the right one in the next morning..... $62.50....ouucchh. That is near half way to the Petronix Ignitor Ignition and a Flamethrower coil. I think I need to bite the bullet here folks.
I have been selling off a lot of my old guitar amps to fund this old wagon. I was getting the amps cheap when I had disposable income and selling them high ( well intentioned unconcious rationalization ) , but nowadays, I am getting down to the last ones I can go without.
Whats a motorhead to do. I want to drive my truck uphills WHA WHA WHA WHA

 

A 12v coil designed for an external resistor would be designed for about 7 volts, so that one you hve from NAPA might be OK. What part # is it? What part # costs $60? Have you checked with Dennis C. et al? (JobLot would be pretty close to you)

I believe I have an old 6v coil, it's ugly but it works, if you want it.