I've wired several cars and this is a new one for me. This is a total wiring job on new car. Everything works, horn, headlights, dimmer, turns, brake lights, parking lights, all gauges, everything but. It's a small block with dual point and ballast, stock coil and aftermarket 4 pole ign. switch. All wires are connected to the switch correctly. Here's the bitch of it. I turn the key to start position and it fires right up-----until I release the key and allow it to return to run position, then it dies. Over and over and over the same thing, start, release, engine dies. Somebody please help me or kill me cause I've checked and double checked the wiring and cannot find a glitch. Thanks, Phil
Fucked switch? Try another one if you're sure you wired it right. Could be a chinese or mexican assembled piece, I spent all day on a gm headlite switch with weird problems, turned out it was the switch after all.
I did Jim. This is the first points ign I've used in years and I can't remember if there is a power in and power out side for the ballast. No markings on ballast itself.
The ballast resistor is wired in series between the ignition switch IGN terminal and the coil + terminal. The bypass wire goes from the starter R terminal to the coil + terminal. The resistor doesn't care which end you connect to power, it's just a resistor.
I have been wondering about the switch too Trolls "T". Wonder if I jumped from the power pole to the ign pole then tried to start it---do you think that would give me any information?
Yes, Jim, that's how I have it. What do you think regarding the switch being junk as mentioned above?
Jim, would you jump as I said from the bat pole to the ign pole on the back of switch or would you disregard switch and wire around it?
I'd probably take the switch apart and see if it had a problem inside. That means getting another switch, of course
Yep.Ignition or run terminal to resistor to pos coil.Start terminal straight to pos coil ,no resistor.good times.
If you are getting voltage to the coil when after you let go from starting it sounds like the switch is working. To be sure you could run a wire directly from the battery to the coil.
Check the switch with a test light and see what terminals are powered when in the on and run position
Things aren't adding up here. If you truly have juice to the coil when you release the key to the run position the car has to keep running. Are you 100% sure you have current there in that position ? As a test, put a jumper wire from the positive battery terminal to the + side of the coil and crank it. The car should keep running because you have hot wired it. If it keeps running that means you don't have juice to the coil in the run position like you think you have. A chevy starter has one fat battery terminal and two small terminals. As you are looking at them the small terminal on the right side of the fat one goes to the "S" or "Start" position on the switch. The remaining skinny one, on the left of the fat one, runs up to the positive terminal on the coil and supplies a full 12 volts to the ignition when starting the car. What is happening is that you are getting that 12 volts when in the start position, but when you release the switch back to the run position there is no connection and it is just like you have turned the ignition off. A test light is your friend. Don
A follow up on the prob. Called Mallory and they advised me that the dual point needed a ballast resistor with 1.4 ohms and a coil with 1.5 ohms. Any more or any less and the thing won't work. Sure enough, I ordered the parts and works like a charm. Also, at one point the starter turned over with the key in the run position. For that one I had to put a diode in the line from starter to coil that gives coil a full 12 volts when starting. The diode allowed current to coil but not the other way toward the starter. Cool huh?
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