I have a Mallory Unilite on a ‘65 Cutlass. Josh(F-85) and I got this started at his house and I ran it home (with only a few mis-adventures) but I now think I should be running the ballast resistor but I don’t understand how it helps.

As I sit now, the R wire from the starter runs with the ‘red’ wire on the distributor to the = terminal on the coil, this should be a full 12 volts while cranking. The resistance wire is also attached to the + terminal on the coil. Distributor green is going to the – terminal on the coil. Brown to ground.

The diagram from Mallory shows the ballast resister inline between the R post on the starter and the + terminal on the coil with the red wire from the distributor on the R side of the ballast. I should run the ballast to protect the electronic module in the distributor. How does that protect the module in the distributor? Doesn’t DC power run from – to +? This ballast looks like it protects the coil.

I am being told I am over thinking this and I should run this as is (no ballast). I do not know what to do. Help me understand.

Advice? Education?





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I think you should listen to that guy!

 

I have a Unilite on my 66. Use the resistor wire that came with the car only, no ballast resistor. Unless you like the distributor shutting off when it gets hot.

 

Deuces is right. Unilites are designed to run at 6-8 volts, which coincidentally is right around what the factory resistance wire in the harness drops the voltage to. Just connect it to the car's existing coil (+) wire and it should be fine.

Now, if you opt to use a Pertronix Ignitor electronic ignition, it too will run on the factory resistance wire, but runs better if you connect it to 12V. My experience with powering them from the resistance wire is that they require a few seconds to charge up before the car will start quickly. Turn switch on, count 5 and the car will usually start quick. You don't count 5, it will spin over several seconds before starting.

Or as old folks around here said "zoo over". As in "that car shore does zoo over a long time afore hit cranks."

 

I like that logic Deuce. I never tried to start a car without the R wire connected. I like the idea of not hitting the circuit with 12 volts. I'll pull it off in the morning.
(And that others guys advice, I listen to most of it!)

 

I used to sell these things back in the day when I worked for Super Shops (which by the way owned Mallory ignition at the time) and I can 100% tell you that the factory resistance wire is all you need. The only time you need to use a ballast is if the car used one from the factory (most Chryslers) or you were installing it into a vehicle that had an electronic ignition from the factory that didn't require a drop in voltage.

 

I'm only telling you this from experience. Mine would just die for no reason until I looked into that ballast resistor. The instructions clearly state to use a resistor but you have one already in the form of that wire. I just removed the ballast resistor and never had a problem again. GL with your project.
Soon my MSD Ready to Run will be going in. I'm not a big fan of Unilites (or maybe my Accel dual point, lol)

 

I did pull the R wire from the coil and it started and ran just fine ( a few times). If, since some of the wiring is cobbled up, I removed the resistance wire the car should die when I don't have the key in cranking. The R wire is not energized when not in the start position correct?

I do want to check the resistance wire voltage just out of curiosity to make sure it is running the correct voltage.
I fell much better about this setup.