Teach me about ohms and coils Options

[jsayre914]

I am currently running a stock distributor on my 2.0 w/ Djet. It has the pertronix ignitor module made for my distributor with the vacume advance. I also had a flame thrower 3ohm coil made by pertronix. I am not sure how many ohms a stock bosch coil is, but my question is...

most high performance coils such as mallory, crane, even the flamethrower (not the one I have) comes with a resistance of .06 or less. Why is this, and what does the ohms do for you anyway. I am thinking to put one of the VERY low ohm coils on my engine to see if any better performance.

If you dont mind also explaining why i threw out my ballast resistor when I originally put the pertronix in. (as per installation instructions) what the heck did that do for a stock coil thats not needed for a 3 ohm coil?



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[Tom]

toolguy,
Your memory is pretty good, but one small point is wrong.The condenser is already discharged while the points are closed. Looking at your diagram, see the condenser has ground on both sides when the points are closed? In that condition, it will discharge. So what actually happens is the condenser starts to charge upon the points opening, assisting in the collapse of the magnetic field and extending the length of the high voltage "spark" to the spark plug. This happens due to the condenser and primary winding forming an LC circuit, which oscillates until the energy is dissipated.
My memory is not so good. I felt something in your explanation was not quite right, but I had to look it up to confirm.
And, the condenser is vital to the points not arcing to death upon opening.

jsayre914,
If you want a more detailed explanation see Electronic Ignition Overview here
jetav8r.com.
I can't get the link part to work. Just google jetav8r.com and you will see it.
Tom