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I'm going to have to read about them. I always thought they were a type of Horn relay. Hopefully this is what is causing to to start and immediately die. My buddy said that's what it is. I have noticed it die several times since I've had it and thought it was a strange way to die. Was like instantly dying. And not trying to chug and hiccup but an instant die. When I put the carb on and started it died quite a few times. As I would start it I would start getting out to set the carb up, by the time I stood up or got to the side of the carb it would die. I thought that it was that it was still trying to fill the float bowls. But when it did it yesterday I immediately thought of ignition.
Does anybody know what the other part is? Looks to be some sort of relay it's on the passenger side of the firewall. Has one wire that splits in two and is screwed on to either side. And below it has a hot wire from the solenoid
I had a bad ballast resistor that had me pulling my hair out.
Turned out the porcelain 'rod' inside the coil was broken.
And when the coil got hot it expanded in length and bowed which then made contact with the metal mounting bracket that wraps around the resistor and shorted the circuit
But until then behaved as normal, i.e. the motor would start, run for a minute or two then die.
A 'normal' bad resistor will allow the motor to fire while the ignition key is twisted to engage the starter - but die when key is released.
A Thunderbirder from the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Does anybody know what the other part is? Looks to be some sort of relay it's on the passenger side of the firewall. Has one wire that splits in two and is screwed on to either side. And below it has a hot wire from the solenoid
Whenever you see porcelain, like on our dash lights dimmer and the ballast resistor, know that extreme heat is involved. Plastics cannot handle as much heat so expensive porcelain is used.
Most OEM voltage regulators give up because the wire-wound resistors behind the relays break from either excessive heat or too many heat/cool cycles.
I have seen ignition coils act the same way as Tom described. Cool and retracted, they run but hot and expanded, they quit.
I had an early 1983 Ford Escort that went through five distributor 'electronic modules.' Some of them simply quit while others ran until the engine warmed, then they turned extremely erratic. When the engine cooled, it was back to normal. - Dave
Originally posted by scumdog
I had a bad ballast resistor that had me pulling my hair out.
Turned out the porcelain 'rod' inside the coil was broken.
And when the coil got hot it expanded in length and bowed which then made contact with the metal mounting bracket that wraps around the resistor and shorted the circuit
But until then behaved as normal, i.e. the motor would start, run for a minute or two then die...
It's sure crazy. The more I think about it I'm finding it goes back to when I got the car. But nothing that would let fix with a turning of the key and start it. A few months after I got it, I had a mechanic with me trouble shooting and that's when it happened he jumped a wire over and it started and stayed running. The guy I got it from had replaced the ignition switch, so he must have had it happening to him. The mechanic I had it at his shop called me over when he fixed it and the running issue. When I picked it up he wanted to show me about how Ford advertised you could sit a coffee cup on the intake and the coffee would stay smooth and not shake. It did work, so I paid him and I left. Going down the road if I gave it too much gas it had bad spark knock. So I called him when I got home. That smooth running engine doesn't matter if you get spark knock driving it. He came over and we adjusted the timing little by little and got it running good. It still wasn't top but I could drive it anywhere.
When I took it apart the other day and set timing the way Dave told me to do. It was "nuts on" as in I had it timed perfectly. It helped me double check it and my mark was dead center on TDC. I changed the plugs because they were fouled. Putting them on I noticed. I believe the 2 & 8 wires were crossed as I looked I saw others off as well. Don't you just love it when you pay someone to fix things and they screw up? Never looked at the plugs because I assumed they were correct so fixing that all I had to do was set the air/fuel mixture. I had already set the timing to 6 degrees BTDC. And as I said while I was setting it I left a couple of burn marks on my drive and in my garage. But it still needed more adjusting. As the very top of RPM I had a little pinging. So Inadjusted and adjust too much. So I set them back to factory and was going to readjust them, get it to where I had it before and I was going to tweek the timing a couple extra degrees. Didn't make it that far because it start and stopped. I went to AutoZone to get a new one. The guy said he didn't remember that last time someone ordered one. I told him it was my first one. They weren't in stock I'll have it tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed that it works. So I can get back to putting the car to get together so it's ready for the music video and photo shoots that are lined up.
Here is the old ballast resistor. I'd say it has seen its better days in the 58 years it was in the car.
Rob, looking at your ballast resistor I can see that it looks nothing like mine. I assume that mine is the OEM ballast resistor, but I cannot be sure. They do come in various shapes when you look at some of the images offered for sale by the various Tbird parts houses...
Hi John, thanks for telling me that! I have always wondered about that. Looking at mine and then looking at other ballast resistors that some of the Tbirds parts houses sell, mine is different from some of those. Like the ones that Mac's, and Tbird hqs sell, as I recall.
Gentlemen, the resistor brand has no bearing (because Ford never made them). As long as the resistance is 1.3-1.4Ω it will work. Back in the day, all brands used a ballast resistor except six-volt systems.
Ok so, Rockauto.com offers two brands:
AIRTEX/WELLS - 6R1011
and
Standard Motor Products - RU4
They're both under six bucks and they fit all these cars:
CHRYSLER 1972-1984
DODGE 1969-1989
EDSEL 1958-1959
FORD 1958-1959
JEEP 1962-1973
LINCOLN 1958-1959
MERCURY 1958-1959
OLDSMOBILE 1962
PLYMOUTH 1970-1981
The only caution is if you buy a coil, don't match a resistor with a coil that has internal resistance. It's either one or the other. - Dave
Ray you think you are confused? I sent a picture of my relay above the blower motor to a buddy of mine because it didnt look anything like the ones I saw online for sale. I saw it had the hot from the solenoid to it and I thought that the little ignition wire was going to it as well but it was all electrical taped up so I stripped it all down and followed it to the bottom of the Ballast Resistor that shared a connector with the one from the coil. I still don't know what the top plug is used for(Ive not looked really hard yet maybe it goes in the firewall to the dash and probably to the ignition.
Ray you think you are confused? I sent a picture of my relay above the blower motor to a buddy of mine because it didnt look anything like the ones I saw online for sale. I saw it had the hot from the solenoid to it and I thought that the little ignition wire was going to it as well but it was all electrical taped up so I stripped it all down and followed it to the bottom of the Ballast Resistor that shared a connector with the one from the coil. I still don't know what the top plug is used for(Ive not looked really hard yet maybe it goes in the firewall to the dash and probably to the ignition.
I told you it was the power window relay. I guess you didn't believe me.
Im sorry John this was 2 days ago before I posted about it. I was talking to my buddy about it. I took it off and sent him a picture of it and he said he had never seen one like that before. But that does make a good point, power window relay. I had 2 windows stop working the other day. I'm sorry you thought I didn't believe you. I should have made it more clear in my post.
Originally posted by jopizz
I told you it was the power window relay. I guess you didn't believe me.
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