Hi All,
Just wanted to say thanks to all and provide an update on my little problem (I
sent a preliminary update a few days ago, but it never bounced back to me ...
so, I'm thinking it got "lost").
It turned out to be the ballast resistor. After attempting to identify and
locate where my actual ballast resistor is (which combined with the rest of
the testing/troubleshooting took quite a few hours) I was able to determine
that someone (I am assuming it wasn't stock) had previously "installed" a
ballast resistor just to the right of the coil on top of the firewall.
After figuring out that the circuit on the resistor was open I observed that
there appeared to be a "redundant" resistor in the unit installed (i.e. there
were two resistors running parallel, maybe the previous owner(s) weren't so
stupid/damned).
I would like to pretend I figured out this "redundancy" rather quickly.
Unfortunately, the real story is after sleeping on the fact that I had found
the resistor and the problem I woke up the next and realized that the resistor
next to it was likely identical to the one not working. I changed the wires,
turned the key and PRESTO car started and continued to run -problem solved.
Then after figuring this out and getting the seats and carpet done. I figured
it was time to replace the plugs, wires, cap, points, the whole shooting match
in the ignition. Unfortunately after ordering all the parts except the coil, I
now have no spark. I am assuming that my lovely lucas ignition coil waited
until I replaced all of it other friends to fail on me. Now I guess I have to
replace the coil. The fun never ends.
Once again - thanks.
Jim Cullen
1974 Spitfire
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