Ballast Resistor question

[billschroeder5842]

I'm freaking out about the little ballast resistor....

Are they necessary when I switched from points to electronic on my '69?

Any way to know ahead of time that they are going bad?

I did some "rewiring" of my ignition cylinder and wondering if I I messed something up.

Thanks!

[Ghoste]

You still need them with the electronic unless you have gone to an MSD (or I would assume any other capacitive discharge unit) and sadly, there is no way to tell ahead of time that they are leaving you.
Why do you think you "messed something up"?

[TylerCharger69]

You still need a ballast resistor, but the one you need for electronic ignition is different

[Chatt69chgr]

What's the difference between the one for points and the one for electronic?  The resistance?  Isn't the purpose of the ballast resistor to drop the voltage to the coil from 12V at start to 9V for run---hotter spark to get started---and keep the coil from overheating in the run position.  So the points provide the path to ground from the coil in a points system.  I would think that a transistor is providing the path to ground in the electronic system.  In each case, you are just grounding the coil.  So it would seem that the current flowing in the ckt would depend on the resistance of the coil primary winding.  Is there a different coil for electronic systems compared to points systems.  I'm talking about Mopar Performance stuff here, not aftermarket.  If that's the case, then wouldn't all coils from 1970 onward be different than the ones from 1969 and earlier?

[Nacho-RT74]

yes they use to set diff resistances for electronic and points. Usually points are higher resistance than electronic

[TylerCharger69]