Thread: Did the ADF remove coil ballast when improving ignition system on series3?

On early Range Rovers ( and probably s111s) the wire from the ignition switch is the resistor. It is usually white with a Blue? trace.

There should be two wires to the coil if the white one is the resistor wire.
One is from the starter which gives 12v while starting and the other is from the ign.
Regards Philip A

I had an issue on a SIII dizzy, where it would stall at speed (it was actually stalling on ignition advance). The plate onto which the contacts mount has a small tether earth strap, that joins to the dizzy body and then earths out (from memory). The wire was broken, so as it stretched with vacuum advance, it would break contact. It just needed a new 1cm length of wire soldered in to fix it. I don't remember if the electronic dizzy I eventually replaced it with had the same design.

That first pic looks like the remains of a choke light switch.
My '80 GS 2.6 has no resistor, but someone has fitted a 12v sport coil anyway.
Resistor can be a special resistance cable, looks like a normal wire.
Can't see any evidence of a resistor wire on mine, coil gets 12v all the time.
Terry

Did the Military Series III have a ballast resistor ?
I had a lot of problems with mine which turned out to be the coil. It would start OK then stop after a while, other times it wouldn't start. Noticed one day that the coil was getting hot.

Hunted high & low and looked at electrical drawings and no sign of a resistor, also checked with a meter and always got 12V so fitted a 12V coil.
Runs well now.


Colin

That is it Gromit,
I can't find a resistor other than it being a wire that looks like any other dirty wire.
I've had to grab another coil as the matched 12v one was leaking everywhere, the flame thrower is a 12v one so it should be fine if there's no resistance. I'll have to chase the wiring with the voltmeter to see what I can find.

Pull a 1 ~ 2 amp load (indicator bulb) through the ignition wire and measure the voltage at the end of it. Compare this to the battery terminal voltage. If it is a couple of volts lower, then the ignition wire is probably resistive itself.

Aaron

Had another look at mine, and the coil wire is definitely non original. I think whoever changed my coil also possibly removed any resistance wire that was there.
Running an 8 volt coil on 12 volts will definitely make it run hot, running a 12 volt coil at 8 volts won't hurt it, but the engine might not run well.
Good luck with it.
Terry

I do not think any Series Landrovers except the V8 (and I'm not sure about it) had a ballast resistor in the coil circuit - as delivered, that is. By this time there could be anything fitted!

John