Ignition questions

[sujitroy]

I have an engine on a test bed. I'm using a 3 ohm coil with no ballast and for now the distributor has points. I don't plan to run this setup for long, but will the 3 ohm coil burn out the points sooner than later?

I have my no. 2 plug wire on my regular stag on the cap. It is on the terminal of the cap to the right of the hold down clip. Is this correct or should it be on the terminal to the left of the hold down clip? I have the firing order right.
Sujit

[Philip Wardle]

Hi Sujit, I would have to do some research on the first question but I don't remember seeing any reference to points wear for a ballast vs. non-ballast system. So I guess any difference in rate of wear is probably small as both systems continue to be used on various vehicles.

On my Stag the no. 2 plug wire is to the left of the hold-down clip. This ties-up with a sketch I made in about 1983 on the back of an envelope which I keep in the front of my Haynes manual. I think the engine will be happy with no. 2 in any position provided the distributor gear is in a suitable rotational orientation with the jackshaft and/or you have enough range of timing adjustment on the clamp, though as you say the firing order would always need to be correct.

[trunt]

My no2is to left of clip (standing on left of car) but it was slipped a gear as I probably have the jackshaft off a tooth.

Set engine to tdc on no2 compression and put the lead to where the rotor is pointing..

[sujitroy]

My Stag is running fine. I must have done this about 15 years back when I swapped the points for Lumenition. I only really took notice when I rigged up the engine on the test bed and compared.

[marshman]

In theory there is no difference, the total resistance is still 3 Ohms, on a ballasted system you have ballast resistance of 1.5 Ohms and Coil resistance of 1.5 Ohms so still a total of 3 Ohms. Current is the same or similar at around 4 Amps and the open circuit voltage is still a nominal 12V. In reality the condenser should do its job and "snub" the arc/spark that erodes the points anyway. Points based systems ran on "unballasted" for years before the introduction of ballasted systems without issue.

[richardthestag]

pretty much what Mman said ^^