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Ballast Resistor
milt - November 9th, 2005 at 05:26 PM

Hi All,

When I turn the ignition on, my kombii starts but as soon as I stop turning it over it dies out.

I asked a guy and he told me my Ballast resitor has died. I have a starter coil that requires one, its an SU10R I think and it say resistor required on it.

I guess my question is where is my ballast resistor? I have 2 wires running off the + on my starter coil which go to 1/ another coil (which I thought was used to charge my aux battery) 2/ the back of the carby. Or should it be in the distributor or on the way to the distributor?

I figure its possible that I don't even have a Ballast resistor, if so my sarter will prob be burnt out right?

Any help will be much appreciated

Cheers

Milt


68AutoBug - November 9th, 2005 at 07:08 PM

On vehicles with a ballast resistor-
The coil is rated at less than 12 volts...
so when You are turning the starter motor over, and the battery voltage is NOT 12 volts, You are still getting enough voltage for the coil....
Once the engine starts, the power goes thru the ballast resistor, which drops the voltage going to the coil otherwise the coil would probably overheat and fail....

I haven't had much to do with the ballast resistors, but all the ones I've seen are white - about 4 inches long -
square in shape with the resistor wires going round it..
they are made from ceramic material....

Lee Noonan 68AutoBug

http://community.webshots.com/user/vw68autobug 


tassupervee - November 9th, 2005 at 07:10 PM

Your ballast resistor should be located on the wire that connects to the + side of the coil. Ignore the ones going to the carbs or from the starter.

Its a whitish creamic rectangular thingy about 12mm square and about 60mm long or so. It has a wire from the key attached to one end and the other end goes to the coil +
They are usually attached to the coil bracket but can be found in a variety of places.

Trace the wire back that eventually goes back to the key. It should be there somwhere.

Avaliable from ANY car parts store.

L8tr
E


milt - November 9th, 2005 at 07:22 PM

It seems as though i dont have one then.
This is a problem then right?

Could my coil have died from not having one and then cause this problem on startup???


1303Steve - November 9th, 2005 at 08:46 PM

Hi

As a rule VWs never had a ballast resistor. What is probably happening is the ignition swith is failing to mantain contact during cranking. Look closely at your igntion lights, they should remain on during cranking, if they dont a new ignition switch is needed.

Steve


tassupervee - November 9th, 2005 at 09:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1303Steve
Hi

As a rule VWs never had a ballast resistor. What is probably happening is the ignition swith is failing to mantain contact during cranking. Look closely at your igntion lights, they should remain on during cranking, if they dont a new ignition switch is needed.

Steve


Thats true but he is running a ballasted type coil.
But the idea of the key switch being dogey is certainly a good one.
L8tr
E