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There ws a guy in my neighborhood that had a Sunbeam Alpine in his garage, but it was in need of repair. There weren't a lot of those cars made. I had a sports car book that listed them as only being about 1500 in total.
05 MX-5 Mazdaspeed #1024 Titanium Gray Mica
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I'm not speeding officer, I'm qualifying!!!
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'06 RSX Type-S NBP
the alpine was one of my favorite cars....
Wire wheels with a lead hammer for the knockoffs... a sound that was just too perfect for a sports car... and or course the required valve lifter adjustments before every drive! I would love to duplicate the sound with my Miata. I bought the Alpine as as I could afford one after being totally hooked by my brother-in-law when I was 13. He left his with us while he was in Germany... we used to sneak out the key and go joy_riding... once the ballast resistor failed and we drove the whole way home with my buddy leaning over the windshield holding the wires together (hood was hinged in front) while I drove. Oh and how many people on the board know what a ballast resistor is(was)?
I've owned a few Mopars. I learned to keep a spare ballast resistor in the glove box!Originally Posted by tx07prht
Welcome.
The term refers to an automobile engine component that lowers the supply voltage to the ignition system after the engine has been started. Because cranking the engine causes a very heavy load on the battery, the system voltage can drop quite low during cranking. To allow the engine to start, the ignition system must be designed to operate on this lower voltage. But once cranking is completed, the normal operating voltage is regained; this voltage would overload the ignition system. To avoid this problem, a ballast resistor is inserted in series with the supply voltage feeding the ignition system. Occasionally, this ballast resistor will fail and the classic symptom of this failure is that the engine runs while being cranked (while the resistor is bypassed) but stalls immediately when cranking ceases (and the resistor is reinserted in the circuit).
Modern electronic ignition systems do not require a ballast resistor as they are flexible enough to operate on the low cranking voltage or the ordinary operating voltage.
In old AC/DC receivers, the vacuum tube filaments are connected in series. Since the voltage drop across all the filaments in series may be less than the full 117 volts from house's line voltage, it was necessary to get rid of the excess voltage. The resistive component use for this purpose was often referred to as a ballast resistor.
well I disagree with part of that explanation...
the ballast resistor drops the voltage across the points, causing them to last long before needing filing or replacement. Modern systems do not use points, therefore do not need to have the voltage drop. and yes the way I found the ballast resitor as a 14 y/o was do to reading every repair book i could find to understand engines and cars electrical systems.
It's good to see your Ctrl C, Ctrl V is working...
Right-clicking is much easier!It's good to see your Ctrl C, Ctrl V is working...
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