What is a Ballast Resistor?

[zagatoman]

Hi

Want to buy a new coil for my 1968 1298cc Fulvia Sport Zagato, just need some advice.

What is a Ballast Resistor? is it the thing straped to the side of the coil?

This is a picture of my coil at the moment, is it fitted with the resister? and is it 1.6 Ohms?

Sorry to be stupid, I just don’t know much about the ignition.

Paul

[thecolonel]

Ballast resistor reduces current to the coil.
You use a 9 volt coil with a resistor or 12 volt without.
Most accessory shops will keep them.

Original idea was that on starting a feed from the starter would bypass the
resistor and send 12 volts to the coil to give an extra boost, once started
the coil would then be fed 9 volts via the resistor. On a lot of Lancias they
didn't bother with the boost circuit and simply ran 9 volt coils with the resistor.

Bit pointless really, it's possible that's what was available at the time.

Geoff