ok so, me and my friend are converting a 54 ford over to 12 volts. got the ignition system all wired up but with no resistor. new points, condenser, and coil. my question is, because its still positive ground(so he wouldnt have to change the starter) where do we put the resistor? will it be ok without one? i always thought it saved points, but he left the key on for 10 minutes and blew up one of the old coils we had. but the car wasnt running.... it seems to be ok while its running. should i put one in line from the dizzy to the coil??? wouldnt that make the points burn up even faster? and wouldnt after the coil burn up both faster? come to think of it...... we didnt get a 12 volt condenser... shit is that going to be an issue?!? the cars runnin great as of now, should we just rock it and see what happens?
The resistor is to reduce voltage to the coil. The condenser reduces the arc over on the points. ( I think ) Pretty sure that your starter will run the same way regardless of how you hook it up, unless its a fixed magnet ( Gear Reduction ) type motor.
Think you'll want to put a resistor back in if it had one originally. I think it goes between your power source and coil, so between the negative battery terminal and the negative coil terminal. Resistors don't care which way they are put in, they are uni-directional. Condensor should not matter, it's just there to soak up voltage spikes, etc...
And you don't need to do anything to starter when swapping polarity. Use of resistor I believe depends on COIL. Was the coil meant to be used with a resistor or not, and if so WHAT resistor...they come in different values. If coil is a parts store one, track it back to whatever it was meant to fit OEM via their catalogs and see if that car used a resistor. If speedshop type, it should have an instruction sheet which will either say "use resistor number xxx" or "remove any resistors already in car".
Do yourself a favor and put the 12V ground on the negative side and ask for a ballast resistor for a 56 up Ford or Mopar. Wire it like a 56 Ford. The starter will work just fine. Everything 12Vs is negative ground. It will make life easier down the road if you want a radio etc. Ford mounted their ballast resistor on the intake manifold like this. Chrysler products mounted them on the firewall like this. Get the one that works for you. The resistor is the same the difference is the mounting bracket. They are about 5 bucks and are designed for that purpose.
AWESOME!!!!! ok, so we switched it over to negative ground, got the gen cleaned up and a new regulator. shes good to go now!! THANKS AGAIN!