Electronic Ignition Upgrade

[steves66]

I bought a Mopar Electronic ignition kit from Mancini with a Accel Super Stock Coil and Accel plug wires. It came with a ballast resistor. My question is, do I need the resistor? I thought with that coil I didn't need to use a ballast resistor! With the resistor I am only getting around 7 volts to the coil with the key on. Shouldn't I have 12v?

[Ghoste]

You do need the resistor even with that coil.  7 is a little low when cold, it should be closer to 9 but the system won't throw a full 12 at it.  That's the way it was set up.

[steves66]

Thanks Ghoste. I was going to break my cam in this past weekend, but had nothing but problems. To make a long story short, the starter simply was not turning the engine over fast enough. After buying a new 850 cold cranking amp battery the starter was still dragging. With the engine barely turning over it didn't seem to have the blue spark coming out of the coil wire like it should have. Does the engine have to be turning over normally to get the correct spark?

[Ghoste]

Only with a magneto.  You have too much resistance somewhere that is causing both problems.  I'd start by cleaning the bulkhead connector and then all the rest of your grounds and connections.