I recently replaced my water pump and diverter plates since I had always had overheating problems. The original plate had about 3/4 of inch betweent he impellors and diverter plate.
Now its better.
While I was waiting for the gasket to set up I was observing some of the wiring I had done several years ago. I noticed this nice job under a wad of electrical tape.
This was then plugged into a ballast resistor, which then feeds to my coil. I clipped and sliced the wires and then made a nice connection to the resistor. So after the water pump is back together I start the car and it seems to run fine, but it starts missing real bad under light throttle. It seems fine if you punch it, but definitely something is up with the ignition system. It was running like my old 97 Jetta after a rain storm. After a short drive I checked under the hood again and the ballast resistor was pretty dang hot. After reading up I realize that I spliced the calibrated resistance wire. My understanding is that it supplies 12 volts to the coil during cranking, then switches to like 6- volts? I also realized that the wire I used was from West Marine since my local hardware store and radio shack were out of stock and I'm pretty sure it's stainless (def not copper). So will I need to slice the original crusty wire back together, it looked pretty tired and dry rotted? If I just replace the stupid marine grade with 14-16 awg copper wire would that help? Does anyone know where to get a new calibrated resistance wire? How should I check to voltage to the coil? My set up is:
400 ci (originally 326 all wiring for 326 2brl) MSD blaster 2 coil I think the MSD ballast resistor 0.8 ohms (PN 8214), but I'm not 100% Mallory Unilite Series 47 distributor with vacuum advance Accel 8.8 wires Regular spark plugs. I think R45s
Here's the resistor:
And the leads going to the coil and distr.
It's always 1 step forward two giant steps back with me.
That's what I was thinking originally. i just checked and the wire is actually tinned copper wire and should be as good or better than the regular stuff. Maybe I should get a new ballast resistor and give it another go. It's really weird. Almost like the accelerator pump is messed up, but I'm pretty confident it's the ignition. Any idea what voltage I should be seeing at the + side of the coil?
I didn't have enough time to mess with it in full, but i did trace the wires back to the bulk head using the wiring diagram. Might just solder new ones, but i need to check a few easier things first.
I was also informed my coil shouldn't be mounted on it's side. Makes sense since it's filled with toxic chemicals. Does anybody have a picture of their coil mount using an edelbrock intake?
The Mallory Series 47 is designed to replace points ignition, isn't it?
Stock voltage doesn't mean anything if you don't have a stock ignition system.
The Instructions for your Unilite are very clear on how much resistance it needs (Mallory provides a part number for a resistor), and they also recommend a specific "power filter" part number, in the event you are having problems getting a clean signal/good drivability. I will also suspect you probably do not want to have BOTH a ballast resistor and a resistance wire. BUT this depends entirely on how much resistance the 2 parts provide when put in series, compared to the amount of resistance/voltage your Unilite distributor requires to function properly. So why not just take ohm reading on your current resistance setup (with both ballast and wire in-line) and compare with the resistance spec for the recommended Mallory ballast resistor to see how close you are? Or contact Mallory's tech support to see if your ohm reading meets their specs for that distributor? I would strongly advise this before going any further. Having incorrect resistance on this circuit could burn up your expensive distributor (this warning is also clearly written on the Mallory Unilite 47's instruction sheet). Hopefully it is not already damaged. I do not recommend you just guess on this and continue to "try things." Take a resistance reading of what you have, and compare with the needed Mallory spec. Make them match before you start the car again.
As for your MSD coil positioning, again I think you should simply refer to MSD's instructions instead of that link you found. That link is for proper positioning of factory coil. You don't have a factory coil. Per MSD, the recommended mounting position for Blaster 2's depends on specific MSD part number. For example I clipped this quote from an MSD Blaster 2 instruction sheet:
"It is recommended to mount the PN 8202 and 8223 coils in an upright position. The High Vibration Coil, PN 8222, can be mounted in any position due to its epoxy potting compound."
Just FYI non-epoxy MSD coils are simply filled with oil...not exactly "toxic chemicals" but I probably wouldn't suggest drinking it LOL...
MSD also offers quality tech support if you contact them.
And Accel 8.8 wires come in many different forms, you don't say which type you have. Some will work with your Mallory distributor...but not their solid core 8.8's. But if you have the solid core version, they are specifically recommended against, by Mallory, and may be causing your problem.
You should also probably research plug gap requirements for your setup. Stock gap may, or may not, be ideal for what you have.
Since you have multiple different product brands spliced together creating your current ignition system, with almost nothing stock, it is positively critical that you read each product's instruction sheet very carefully, and make absolutely certain each is compatible with the other when installed together. Best case scenario, a mismatch combo doesn't run right...worst case scenario, you will damage/destroy some of the parts.
One more thing comes to mind. Hard to tell from your pics, but I see a lot of parallel plug runs and I don't see any separators. Are they hiding in there somewhere? Usually it is only a problem for adjacent-firing cylinders, but overall, just go with the generic recommendation that plug wires should never touch each other to prevent cross-firing at the wrong time, especially along parallel runs.
Hey thanks for the great post. The car was put together by me when I was a kid and obviously was lacking knowledge and I went with whatever was the cheapest 99% of the time. It was a pretty rad ride at 17 though. I actually did call MSD yesterday, but they were closed. I did check my voltage at the coil yesterday and it was super low like around 5 volts. I'm 99% convinced my issue is with power supply to the coil (which is mounted incorrectly and threatening to leak a PCB like substances all over my firewall). So today I did talk to Mallory and MSD and got some specs. I am going to check the actual resistance of the calibrated resistance wire and then add that to my ballast resistor which is 0.8 OHMS or actually I'll just test the whole length at once. I need at least 1.4 OHMs according to Mallory. From what I've read, I will most likely replace the cal resistance wire anyways at the engine bay fuse block with a 12 guage wire and then use the proper Mallory ballast resistor since it is greater resistance than what is required by MSD. I now know what that extra wire went to when I replaced my starter. I ended up calling IMI when I installed my starter and they asked if I was running points and they said no points, don't sorry about it. Now i know why. I'm guessing the system never functioned at 100% so I'm excited to maybe get it running better than before. I also found some other great write ups here, and potentially some wiring worse than my own.
Any advice for removing the old cal resistance wire from the engine wiring harness connection? I'm a littel scared it will be super brittle after 45 yrs. Is there a special tool? Please don't say soldering.
So I got the wiring done. For now I just wired the iginition to the ignition source in the fuse box, through the proper mallory ballast resistor. I found the Packard Delphi twin lock connectors at a marine supply store and will attempt to install the ignition wire properly intot he engine bay harness at some point. Looks like I have full 12 volts to the coil when the Ignition module is bypassed and 8 volts when everything is hooked up, which is what Mallory recommended. Bought some flat iron and "plan" to mount the coil in a proper position, once I measure for clearances. Ordered wire looms and plan on getting them on tonight. I got the ones here and plan on copying this set up
The car started right up and did feel stronger, but I still have the stumble on partial throttle. I changed the Edelbrock accelerator pump setting to the longest shot and it help a bit, but still not great. I have a carb rebuild kit sitting in my garage, but I was reluctant to just start replacing everything at once, but now since the ignition seems to pass muster, I guess it's time to move on. I bought a soldering torch so i can check for vaccuum leaks around the intake too since I have my suspicions about the intake gasket. i went back and actually read the direction for my intake manifold and ordered the proper edelbrock replacement intake gasket, since the manifold will likely be off in the near future.
At least with the new water pump she stayed at about 170 for most of the trip and crept up to 180-185 after a few stop lights and stop and go, but not too bad.
I have a similar problem with my 68 Firebird.That resistance wire is getting so hot it’s smoking.I moved it and the engine cut off so I have a open in the wire or a short further up the line.Check to see if your ignition neg- wire on the back of your ignition switch is melted.Mine was.