How Many of You use the Pertronix Flamethrower Sans Ballast?

[Gerald Morris]

Having recently seen and experienced some symptoms suggesting the 60 yr old Delco coil I installed may not be delivering good spark, I bought a Pertronix Flamethrower for a nice discount fr Bezo$. I see that they recommend discarding the ballast resistor. That's swell enough, but I wonder if reducing the ignition circuit impedance might have deleterious effect on my points. I have PLENTY good breaker points to burn, but I loathe waste without good reason. How many of you use the Flamethrower? I know it's a popular option, and I got the proper impedance, 1.5 ohms. I'll give it a try sans ballast, and check my plugs and points after a week or so. Your thoughts are most welcome.

 

[stain]

I use it without the ballast BUT I also installed the Petronix ignition module to eliminate the points.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I use it without the ballast BUT I also installed the Petronix ignition module to eliminate the points.

Righto! I'll see how well the points do with impedance reduced by 25%, making a current increase of 4/3, or 33%. Should get better spark. I'll likely gap my plugs out to 0.040" also, to use the advantage.

 

[Russell Petry]

Having recently seen and experienced some symptoms suggesting the 60 yr old Delco coil I installed may not be delivering good spark, I bought a Pertronix Flamethrower for a nice discount fr Bezo$. I see that they recommend discarding the ballast resistor. That's swell enough, but I wonder if reducing the ignition circuit impedance might have deleterious effect on my points. I have PLENTY good breaker points to burn, but I loathe waste without good reason. How many of you use the Flamethrower? I know it's a popular option, and I got the proper impedance, 1.5 ohms. I'll give it a try sans ballast, and check my plugs and points after a week or so. Your thoughts are most welcome.

I have been down this road. I have a 1977 NYB with a 400 engine. When I got it, it still had the Chrysler electronic ignition module in it and the ballast resistor on the firewall. I changed out my distributor, and the ignition module to Pertronix distributor and their computerized ignition module system with a flamethrower coil. It eliminates the ballast resistor completely. I also got rid of the thermoquad carburetor and put an Edelbrock 650 carb in place. My car performs better than before definitely. It has been a definite improvement and no more worrying about the ballast resistor going out. Also, my car did have issues with not starting sometimes when it was hot with the old system. Now, it starts up EVERY time, hot or cold.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I have been down this road. I have a 1977 NYB with a 400 engine. When I got it, it still had the Chrysler electronic ignition module in it and the ballast resistor on the firewall. I changed out my distributor, and the ignition module to Pertronix distributor and their computerized ignition module system with a flamethrower coil. It eliminates the ballast resistor completely. I also got rid of the thermoquad carburetor and put an Edelbrock 650 carb in place. My car performs better than before definitely. It has been a definite improvement and no more worrying about the ballast resistor going out. Also, my car did have issues with not starting sometimes when it was hot with the old system. Now, it starts up EVERY time, hot or cold.

Pertronix incontrovertibly makes an excellent coil, especially for under $30! I ran it for a week sans the ballast on my deliberately simple, Kettering ignition, and had horrible results due to the output voltage being a little too high for a breaker point distributor. Spark jumped around in the distributor, as I saw while setting the dwell. So, I replaced the ballast, and NOW Gertrude PURRS. I have the plugs gapped at .040" also, so I suspect I'm still getting better voltage than what folks allowed for 60 yrs ago.

I'll keep a close eye on the breaker points, to see how long they last. I got nearly 18 months use out of the previous set, then burned them up in that week with the un-ballasted coil. With a nice fresh set, it will be educational to see how long they last, with the coil ballasted. Mind you, this reduces the input voltage by 25% when everything is cold, which seems just enough to allow primitive stuff to be used. I have PLENTY of Mopar points, though I won't flagrantly waste them.

 

[Toolmanmike]

Having recently seen and experienced some symptoms suggesting the 60 yr old Delco coil I installed may not be delivering good spark, I bought a Pertronix Flamethrower for a nice discount fr Bezo$. I see that they recommend discarding the ballast resistor. That's swell enough, but I wonder if reducing the ignition circuit impedance might have deleterious effect on my points. I have PLENTY good breaker points to burn, but I loathe waste without good reason. How many of you use the Flamethrower? I know it's a popular option, and I got the proper impedance, 1.5 ohms. I'll give it a try sans ballast, and check my plugs and points after a week or so. Your thoughts are most welcome.

@halifaxhops and I were talking about that today. I think he said it depends on what coil you use and the resistance it has.

 

[halifaxhops]

If you are using the Petronix unit in the distributor the petronix I uses the 1.5 ohm coil and no ballast on the 8 cyl models. Points need a ballast resistor.

 

[Gerald Morris]

@halifaxhops and I were talking about that today. I think he said it depends on what coil you use and the resistance it has.

Coil impedance needs to match the original specs as closely as possible if we use Mopar points. I saw in the distributor spark jumping beyond the little momentary gap created by the opening point pads when twirling it up at a straight 14VDC. Tell the Hopster I've contrived a crude test harness for my distributors consisting of an Actron multimeter, a vice, a drill motor and suitable wiring, so I can set the points nicely before dropping it into the engine. Facilitates tuning nicely that does.

I suspect that voltages exceeding ~40kV on the secondary side require the more precisely designed plug wires which conduct the electro-MAGNETIC pulse as the wave front it really is, rather than a merely well insulated bit of copper which conveys mobile charge on its surface, apt to leap upon ANY irregular point available to it. I have a nice set of Accel copper core wires which I might deploy, to see of they handle higher voltage better than the aging Packard 440 stuff I made my loom with some years ago. I WON'T be paying the outrageous price for that cherished brand now demanded. WTF? Did Delco start using GOLD in the stuff?

Ask Hoppy if he's tried out any of the 9mm copper plug wire which has recently come on the market. Maybe the increased ampacity and thicker insulation will handle 40-50kV well enough to use.

I KNOW I can easily plop a Pertronix module into my distributors and be done with breaker points, but I refuse to do so so long as my eyes can still see the gap, and my hands can still twiddle the points, springs n things which make a Kettering ignition. One thing to say FOR this 19th century method, it's nigh EMP proof! If there should be a pulse big enough to melt a spark gap pulse generator, then we'll have other concerns in the event....

 

[Gerald Morris]

If you are using the Petronix unit in the distributor the petronix I uses the 1.5 ohm coil and no ballast on the 8 cyl models.

OK, I'll install the Accel plug wires. I suspect the old Packards (6+ yrs) have a few cracks. I can look at the engine running after sundown, with a spray bottle to hunt for lightning. I would certainly rather I got the 45kV the coil is capable of all at the plugs rather than settle for for 31.25kV....

 

[halifaxhops]

Coil impedance needs to match the original specs as closely as possible if we use Mopar points. I saw in the distributor spark jumping beyond the little momentary gap created by the opening point pads when twirling it up at a straight 14VDC. Tell the Hopster I've contrived a crude test harness for my distributors consisting of an Actron multimeter, a vice, a drill motor and suitable wiring, so I can set the points nicely before dropping it into the engine. Facilitates tuning nicely that does.

I suspect that voltages exceeding ~40kV on the secondary side require the more precisely designed plug wires which conduct the electro-MAGNETIC pulse as the wave front it really is, rather than a merely well insulated bit of copper which conveys mobile charge on its surface, apt to leap upon ANY irregular point available to it. I have a nice set of Accel copper core wires which I might deploy, to see of they handle higher voltage better than the aging Packard 440 stuff I made my loom with some years ago. I WON'T be paying the outrageous price for that cherished brand now demanded. WTF? Did Delco start using GOLD in the stuff?

Ask Hoppy if he's tried out any of the 9mm copper plug wire which has recently come on the market. Maybe the increased ampacity and thicker insulation will handle 40-50kV well enough to use.

I KNOW I can easily plop a Pertronix module into my distributors and be done with breaker points, but I refuse to do so so long as my eyes can still see the gap, and my hands can still twiddle the points, springs n things which make a Kettering ignition. One thing to say FOR this 19th century method, it's nigh EMP proof! If there should be a pulse big enough to melt a spark gap pulse generator, then we'll have other concerns in the event....

Never used them so no idea. Hey if you are using the points you should have a .5-,6 ohm ballast to go with the 1.5 ohm coil.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Never used them so no idea. Hey if you are using the points you should have a .5-,6 ohm ballast to go with the 1.5 ohm coil.

Worry not. I do. You've answered my Question. It's definitely BEST to use a ballast resistor with this coil when using breaker points. I scored a handful of NOS Mopar ballasts some yrs ago, enough for my lifetime I expect....