Ballast wire mk2 stag

[grahamd]

Is there a reason the pink and white ballast wire is seven core steel non metallic but the white wire it connects to is multi strand copper

[StagJonno]

The purpose of the pink/ white ballast wire is to introduce a resistance of ~1.5 ohms in the power +ve to the coil. Never dissected mine, but the construction you describe doesn't surprise me (copper would not provide the necessary resistance over such a short length..

[grahamd]

Thanks for the quick response the reason I was asking is that last year my ballast wire was shorting out with other wires near the coil the garage I took it to cut it back and feed a wire direct from the battery through a relay to the coil and changed the coil to unballasted I was going to renew the original wire from the connection of the white wire to the pink and white but am unsure what size and material to replace I with I shall look and see if anyone sells a similar wire.

[StagJonno]

I've had a quick sniff around the usual suspects, including Autosparks and Car Builder Solutions and couldn't see this listed (though might be worth a call to Autosparks as they offer built-up looms, so may stock this wire for them). RS Components sell a range of resistor wire (eg https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/test-lead-wire/7141729/ ), for which you could cut a suitable length and run in glassfibre sleeving. Would need to be able to handle 5A, be ~1.5 ohms, and not get too hot in the process to avoid damaging anything along the route.

It's possible that Tony White, who breaks Stags and appears in the Traders section, might be able to supply a S/H wire though personally I wouldn't be happy with such an old wire after it's been manipulated out and then back into your car as it's a reasonable assumption that the insulation may have become brittle, particularly as it runs warm.

The easiest route may be to extend the white wire to a separate ballast resistor mounted on the coil as was done on "Mk1" cars - all the usual suspects stock these. The other side of the ballast connects to coil +ve.

Others may be along with their ideas, though I think this is the first I've heard of a problem with this ballast wire.

[trunt]

+1 on the ballast resistor, that way you have a choice of ballasted or non ballasted should you ever go with an electronic module. I just ran a white copper wire from the connector in the loom under the dash(I assume that’s where you are looking at the connection) if not then you could always splice a short length of wire to the end of the white pink to get it to reach the coil, a few inches would not really make a difference, it’s not that accurate.

[jbuckl]

The ballasted Pink wire is ni-chrome.
it’s possible to buy it from auto sparks… maybe not in pink.
good news is the connection in the loom for it is a large breakout in the loom behind the rev counter.

[grahamd]

Thanks for all your replies I will try auto sparks