ballast gets boiling hot

[halle09]

I went at it again and no luck! the battery was at 13volts charges up i turned ignition on and it read 10.6 volts on the one side (WHILE ON THE BALLAST (4 prong) i took the plug off and it magically went to 11.5 volts but whenever i put it on the ballast it jumps back down to 10.6 and it then reads 3.5 to 4 volts on the coil side of the ballast when everything is plugged in. Im lost.... could the orange box be bad idk whats going on. replaced ballast and voltage regulator. i traced out the two lines in the one port to the coil+ and the bulkhead connector.

[dodj]

Battery is weak. A short circuit in your harness wiring solid enough to draw a healthy battery down that much would be melting the insulation if it didn't burn up the fusible link. If you have another battery, like out of your daily driver, give it a try. If the battery is new, bring it back and have it tested.

[halle09]

Battery is weak. A short circuit in your harness wiring solid enough to draw a healthy battery down that much would be melting the insulation if it didn't burn up the fusible link. If you have another battery, like out of your daily driver, give it a try. If the battery is new, bring it back and have it tested.

i think your miss understanding .battery is 13v and at the ballast connector it reads 11.5 off the ballast and 10.8v on the ballast. its not the battery. i cant figure this out. can i jump any connections to bypass some maybe trouble spots?

[dodj]

i think your miss understanding .

OK. That wouldn't be new. My wife says I misunderstand all the time! 
Help me out. What does "11.5v off the ballast and 10.8v on the ballast' mean?
Are you talking about having it plugged in and not plugged in?

[halle09]

OK. That wouldn't be new. My wife says I misunderstand all the time! 
Help me out. What does "11.5v off the ballast and 10.8v on the ballast' mean?
Are you talking about having it plugged in and not plugged in?

yes exactly. sorry. i went back out and messed around trying to isolate stuff and no go. i just dont understand how its 11.5 volts then 10.5 to 10.8. i ran through all the wires and i take off two wires on the alternator which are the ground and field wires and it bumps the voltage up to 12.4 without the ballast pluged in . once plugged in it shoots back down to 11.7 now. 

how i start the car now is an ignition hot wire to the coil+ then i jump the starter relay and then get it warmed up and remove the wire and it runs on its own...

[rattlesnake]

Halle09,
I would love to help you out but to be honest I am having a difficult time following your verbage. No offence meant. What area are you from? You might try getting a wiring diagram for your year and model of car and just start tracing the wires, checking the integrity and placement of each. It is a time consuming job but might be worthwhile.

[halle09]

Halle09,
I would love to help you out but to be honest I am having a difficult time following your verbage. No offence meant. What area are you from? You might try getting a wiring diagram for your year and model of car and just start tracing the wires, checking the integrity and placement of each. It is a time consuming job but might be worthwhile.

sorry about the hard to read language its just as hard for me to describe what the heck is going on with all this wiring. I am from New York. ive looked at a wiring diagram and it seems everything is in place. i read this article from mopar muscle. it specifically says if i have a mopar electronic igniton which i DO (quote)

"Electronic ignition systems, whether factory Mopar or aftermarket, don't utilize breaker points, thereby not actually needing a ballast resistor to control amperage through the pickup coil. And while ignition coil life may be compromised without a resistor, the additional secondary voltage (at the spark plug) is increased which generally improves power. So does your application require a ballast resistor? Quite simply, if your distributor has breaker points the answer is yes; if not, the answer is no."

so if i keep just running an ignition hot line(fused) directly to the coil+ wont i be ok? I mean its the only way i can get it to start and it runs fine when its on the coil+.

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE:  http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/body/mopp_1110_ballast_resistor_guide_ballast_blast_off/

[Bullitt-]

The issue you have is common to these old cars & I understand you are looking for a simple solution & bypassing the the ballast resistor is one.
Finding the cause of the voltage drop & repairing it would not be as easy.  There is another, you can add a wire directly from the battery going through a relay that is energized by the existing ignition (start/run) wire.

[halle09]

im going to just run a gm HEI conversion i have everything already except the module and ill make a heat sink and use the orange box as a back up ready to plug in. sorry any purists out there. seems so simple and any parts store near me if it fails will have one.

[mopar jack]

That Mopar muscle article doesn't recommend a coil to use. I tried no ballast resistor and boiled the oil out of the coil because it required a resistor for normal operation. So if you go with no ballast use a coil that doesn't need a resistor. Some coils have an internal resistor.

Jack

[Bullitt-]

HEI conversion will work well but you still need to provide proper voltage for best results.  Also if your running a factory tachometer there will be issues to resolve.

[halle09]

HEI conversion will work well but you still need to provide proper voltage for best results.  Also if your running a factory tachometer there will be issues to resolve.

im going to run a relay and im using an aftermarket tach. factory one was DOA. i have a msd blaster 2 that other people use with this conversion.... this actually works out because now i have a complete back up system. i will just mount the heat sink in the factory resistor mount and make it look stock and be done with it.

[73EStroker]

You could have a bad component like the coil or the control box "drawing" down the voltage which means it is pulling a lot of current to do that. For this to be proven you need to go to the coil itself and disconnect it. Then turn on the ignition and measure the volts at the coil. If it is 8-9 like CP stated then the coil is the issue. If the voltage is bad at the coil still with it disconnected then go upstream to the ballast resistor and measure there. Could even be a bad connection between the coil and resistor. Still with coil disconnected trace back by measuring voltage on the key side of the resistor. It should be the same voltage as you get at the battery terminals. Then keep going up stream until you get to the power into the ignition switch. With the heat you describe and the voltage draw down then it is drawing a higher load than normal. Also a previous poster stated to look for a breakdown in the wire insulation. Good place to look is the wiring going across the motor as it gets cooked over the years. Hope this helps

[halle09]

i got all my components for the conversion and wired it all up which was actually so stupid simple and the car ran great i just adjusted the plugs to .045 like suggested and mounted the module in the factory ballast mounting location and left the orange box ready to go if i ever have a problem with this system... if you are on the fence about doing this i would. if it malfunctions, new modules are at any auto store in a pinch and its soooooo much simpler to diagnose problems.(just get a genunine module like a AC DELCO