Technical Chevy ignition question, ballast resistor or not

Beaner, Read the posts, it's only one page.

 

I've refined my wording in my earlier posts to use Borg Warner RU4 or RU12 resistors using "ohms resistance". I was thinking of actual voltage drop once their used as 8.8 ish & mistakenly used ohms. Never to old to learn something new from great Hamb's of wisdom & thankfully there are many wise ones one here & a few wise guys! Thanks guys! Flux
Here's some pics from some of my old books at work. I've saved hundreds of these old parts mans bibles since mid 70's!
Borg Warner ignition here

Standard ignition

 

I'm home now. I'll be working on the chevy till it starts.
@porknbeaner, that was my gripe about Zone and O'Reillys. Nobody knows what they're doing without their computer in front of them. They BOTH suggested 3 different resistors, but couldn't tell me which was best. One idiot said "you don't need those anymore. It took the old guy at Napa to find out Borg Warner was carried by Car Quest, last he heard.

He told me which one was best for my situation, and offered to take it back for store credit if it doesn't work. Everyone else has a no return policy on electrical parts.

Another thing I forgot to mention, there were only 4 wires at the engine.
1. Battery to starter
2. Firewall to starter
3. Distributor to coil.
4. Starter "R" to nothing.
Thanks for all the input. I'll keep you posted.

 

Go to a junk yard and give them $50 for a HEI and save that resistor for another hot rod buddy.

 

Jim, I searched last weekend in the rain, without finding a good one for a V8.

When you guys say IGN, do you mean ignition starter? Or ignition switch?

Thanks.

 

Sometimes a pic helps. Ignition switch feed is easiest way like this pic. Flux

 

OK Speedway has new ones for $100

 

Ha ha. Everything everyone said, is clear now...I'm so visual. Thank you Mr. Flux.

 

The thing to look for when trying to get a ballast resistor is it should be 'matched' to the coil. What coil you have isn't always possible to know, so a good 'rule of thumb' is the ohms resistance of the resistor and the coil primary winding should be the same or close. Measure the coil between the + and - terminals for ohms, then find a ballast resistor with the ohm value to match that. Too high resistance and you reduce spark output, too low you'll burn up the coil.

 

What's that old saying... "a picture is worth a thousand words."

 

I gotta say I learned in this thread, all these years I was under impression "R" wire on silinoid was hot all time, because our old 69 c10 , w manual 3 Spd overdrive had "fuzzy" coated wire , when all along it was a true non resistance , solid wire with a factory protective cover. The overdrive harness hooks into the coil wiring & I found the true resistance wire coming through the overdrive silinoids ignition harness. Many thanks to Squirrel! A true automotive genius! Thanks for taking us to school. I love learning the right way to do stuff. Flux

 

Same here. Best description of how to pick a resistor by Crazy Steve. Thanks for getting thru to me that you cannot get a correct voltage reading at ballast resistor without it being connected and running. Thanks to Ol Buzzard, Squirrel, and Crazy Steve's class over on Volt Meter thread.

 

Ok. It HAS to be something simple and stupid, I'm overlooking.

I did what Porknbeaner said. I ran it like the picture flux posted. I ran it like the cartoon looking picture.

Nothing.

I had 12.29 at battery, 9.28 after the ballast. Kept burning and cleaning points, until I finally replaced them. Set points at .019. I've set it a TDC, and 4° BTDC, I don't know how many times.

Nothing.

I said, F@#$ IT! and went to salvage yard and picked up a HEI distributor (50% off today). I put in a new module. I ran the wiring like the other picture.

SOB still wouldn't start.

I'm losing my mind.

 

Ok, let's change some terminology.
The engine does CRANK - turn over when you turn the key to START position?
It must or you would not be concentrating energy on distributors.
Are the plugs FIRING? - getting spark
There is a trick little tool which looks like a test light with a plug head on one end and a plug wire on the other. It gets inserted between the plug and the wire and lights up with each spark.
If you are getting spark, find near TDC on #1 cylinder (Chevy #1), with your finger in the plug hole as a compression test, and make sure rotor is pointing at that wire in the cap. Then make sure firing order is correct following correct rotation for that engine. (I believe clockwise)
If these are correct pour a little fuel in it and try again. If it FIRES, you have a fuel problem, which the first post would lead us to believe. Carb may have gotten rust in it AFTER rebuild.

 

Thanks rfraze. I did the old "screwdriver at the plug wire close to metal bracket" trick. I was getting spark. I have two filters between tank and carb. I will clear the fuel lines and start over.

I didn't think of that being the issue since there IS gas there. I see it spray in, and even soak gaskets, kinda how it looks when it floods.

 

shouldn't have shown that As I might come down and live in the readin section for years ...

 

Maybe it is flooded. You could tap on the carb by the float bowl to unstick the float, pull all the plugs, crank it, then, let it sit for a while and dry out.

 

plugs could be wet and will not fire ( overly flooded motor ) pull ALL the plugs and if they are wet , pump the motor over a few seconds and dry the plugs then reinstall them .

 

I tapped on the carb by the float. I opened the carb and emptied the reservoir. I cleared the gas lines, and cleaned the filters, there was a little dirt, but I've had more in other occasions where the vehicle was running.

I pulled the plugs, they were wet, and turned it over. I gapped the spark plugs to .055, like I have on my other vehicles with HEI.

Poored gas in the carb, and still doesn't start.

It turns over but doesn't start.

When I get back, I'm going to remove the carb, and go through it again. Meanwhile, I'll have the battery recharging.

 

I've gone through the carburetor and noticed the little metal ball at the bottom of the carb stuck. I suppose it's the incorrect ball, and requires the larger one. I changed it out. I replaced the engine ground wire, it has seen better days.

I bought a spark tester, and tested for spark. In my opinion, the spark looked a little weak. Knowing the distributor gets its ground from the block, that's why I changed the ground wire.

Still doesn't start.

Why would I get a weak spark?

Thanks.

 

Condenser?

 

Checking. Thanks.

 

Condenser was bad. I replaced it, and it still won't start.

 

You could hook it up to the glider launch over at Torrey Pines and give one last ride off that cliff over there. Make a video while you are at it.

This is going to sound just as crazy as that: I found a set of points that WAS NOT grounding to the distributor once. There was some kind of invisible corrosion between points and point plate.. Never saw that before. You might check resistance between the points mechanism and ground, just in case.
So it never fires, even when you squirt fuel in carb?
You probably need to go back and make sure #1 is at TDC and pointing at #1 Plug wire and on down the firing order, then check spark at each cylinder. I am guessing you know it has compression by now.

Reconsider the first idea.

 

It has to be something simple, that I'm overlooking.

I would've rolled it out of my garage, and down the fucking hill into the river, but it's not mine.

The problem is that I heard it run before it was brought to me. When I went to start it, after I swapped the tranny, it ran like shit. It wouldn't run, without my foot on the gas. It was leaking gas at the carburetor. Got the carb kit, installed it, and that is when the ignition problems started.

If you go back and read my posts, you'll see I have an HEI distributor now. I even swapped it out with one from a running vehicle last night. It still turns over, but doesn't start.

I'm not a mechanic, but I have NEVER struggled this much to get a car running.

 

I see a lot of plugs gas foul at work nowadays n it seems that once they've been gas fouled might as well be dumped in the trash can. What use to work when gas was good simply isn't usually feasible with this sad ethanol junk for gas we're dealing with, it's bound to have done millions in damage to our autos n small engines neoprene items & fuel components. I've let plugs dry out & even blasted the things & cleaned them to perfection to no avail. Personally, I think it'd be worth a try to get some new plugs, far as using cheap 87 octane gas goes the motorcraft or autolite "plain" non platinum base level plugs seem to thrive well in an rich fuel mix & ethanol environment. The cliff comment reminds me of a neighbor frustrated few years ago with carb troubles & rammed his 400 Mopar powered Córdoba into an oak tree over & over..... Not cool. Walk away, & take a break for a few days be good advice. Invest in a set of new plugs & hopefully it'll hit a lick. If not the 10 buck experiment is a scratch & out comes the test light, TDC #1 is when intake valve rocker just beginning to open "go down" & exhaust rocker is loose rocking on # 1 cylinder, making sure it's not a tooth off on dist gear when rotor aimed at # 1 on cap. I'm sure you've already done this but time to backtrack & revisit the basics. It's usually the simplest of things. Hang in there. Flux

 

It HAS new plugs.

See how irritating this is?

 

Yes indeed

 

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First, let me apologize for not keeping up with your posts and questions. I ask you about the condenser AFTER you mentioned changing to HEI, which has no condenser.
Hopefully you took the ballast resistor out of the circuit when installing the HEI. You can check voltage at the connector to dist cap (should be battery voltage) from ignition switch. What voltage do you show? Make sure you connect wire from IGN to the correct connector on cap (The other connector is for tach)
How are you testing for spark? Did you get one of those trick little testers I mentioned above that goes between the spark plug wire and plug? Are you getting spark to all cylinders?
Which spark plug are you using for #1 TDC? Which side? You mentioned this being your first Chev. To get basic, #1 driver side front followed down that side by odd number cylinders (3, 5, 7). Firing order 18436572 with rotor rotation clockwise. Distributor diagrams show #1 wire toward front of engine or a couple toward pass side in a perfect world. Where rotor is pointing at #1 TDC is more important. Follow firing order from there.

 

No worries, rfraze. First and for most. The stock HEI, DOES have a condenser in the harness that plugs into the cap/coil. No ballast, that was terminated along with the points dissy.
I'm testing #1. I've done it with rotor pointing to #1, and #2 like the old shop book that I have says. Odds on the right, evens on the left. The same firing order you have as does the one on the manifold.

I started a new thread on this. The other thread mentioned the ballast in the title and apparently was confusing everyone that didn't read the whole thread.

Sbc, still doesn't start. Is the thread. I feel like I'm getting close.