Todd Bermudez wrote, in response to a question by Bud Trussell:
"Another piece of unobtanium. I have one on my '74. Comes off the positive
side of the coil(should be a spare terminal) and it actually installs on one
of the bolts that holds the coil to the block. That is infact the ballast
resistor. TRF doesn't carry them...I checked at the summer party."
Todd and Bud,
The small cylinder you both speak of is a radio noise suppression capacitor,
not the ballast resister. In most cases, it can be removed without any impact
at all on radio reception, certainly if you have a modern radio installed. The
ballast resister is a piece of wire, pink and white, looking much like a
shoelace, which is wrapped up in the wiring harness. This piece of wire is
iron,
rather than copper. Iron has more resistance per foot than copper, and the
resistance of iron goes up much faster with heat than it does with copper.
There
is no "discrete" resistor as you might find on an American car. Go to
http://www.britishv8.org/techhome.htm , click on the "electrical" button, and
download
(right click and choose "save target as") the wiring diagrams for your TR, and
you will see the ballast resister in the circuit. It's the heavy wire near
the top center of the diagrams, used only on '73 and later models.
Regards, and Merry Christmas,
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
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