RE: wiring question

[Richard Brake <richard.brake@domain.elided>]

My Triumph's all run a 12 volt coil. This allegedly gives a more
powerfull spark whilst running. I have not had any starting problems due
to this. I believe that modern cars don't bother with ballast resistors
(possibly for cost reasons, or is it performance?).

If you've got a later Triumph with an internal ballast resistor (the
ballast wire is in the loom) when this goes wrong you've got  three
choices;
	1) New loom.
	2) External ballast resistor.
	3) 12 volt coil.

What I did on my Stag was move the coil away from the inlet manifold, I
mounted it on the strut panelwork opposite the washer bottle. This
allowed the coil to run much cooler (good in terms on component life),
It also made it easier to get at the distributor bolts!

Richard  Brake
richard.brake@domain.elided

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	FMags2@domain.elided [SMTP:FMags2@domain.elided]
	Sent:	26 March 1999 01:09
	To:	stag@domain.elided
	Subject:	Re: wiring question

	In a message dated 3/25/99 3:23:07 PM Central Standard Time,
	trstag@domain.elided writes:

	<< The coil according to the manual is meant to be 6 volts.
Have
	 >recommendations been made to make it a 12 volt unit instead?
	 The coil is supposed to be 6 volts.  The system is equiped with
ballast
	 resistor.  When the car is cranking
	 the ballast resistor is bypassed.  This supplies 12 volts to a
6 volt coil.
	 The purpose of this is 2 fold:
	 1) it provides a hotter spark when most needed , for starting
2) it
	 compensates for a possible lower
	 than normal voltage due to cranking.  If the coil were
constantly run at 12
	 volts it would burn out. >>

	It certainly would.  I had a ballast resistor go out on my GT6
once when I was
	at work.  I found a piece of wire on the ground and bypassed the
ballast
	resistor to get it home.  Took a long time to troubleshoot why
it ran so
	poorly after installing a new ballast resistor.  The case of the
coil was
	split lengthwise from running at 12v!  Unfortunately it was on
the back side
	of the coil and I didn't see it until I took the coil off the
car.

	Frank M.