For the Iggy technoids.

[PowerArc]

So what is the resistor for in the spark plug caps. And does it tie in to any of this to eliminate heat back up in stock systems with ballast resistor in coils.

The resistor in the spark plug cap has nothing to due with the ballast resistor. The ballast resistor is on the primary side of the coil and the resistor in the spark plug cap is on the secondary side of the coil having a completely different function in the circuit.

Extreme EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) is generated in the form of a voltage spike during the collapse of the magnetic field of the ignition coil. It is not the voltage spike that harms the integrated circuits of the microprocessors or counting chips it is the circuit carried by the high voltage spikes. The resistance of the added to the caps, spark plugs and/or spark plug wires acts as a current limit resistor protecting the electronic ignition.

Points and transistor switched ignitions without microprocessors or counting circuits are not effected by EMI so do as you wish because points output is weak to start with.

RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) is a subset of EMI and has no effect on electronic ignitions but does reek havoc with AM radio.

Protection from EMI has improved but with the newer high power, quicker switching coils and multi-spark ignitions it just keeps getting tougher to protect the ignition. Not using enough resistance can and does cause the transistors to lock on giving allowing long saturation times, over heating the transistors to the point of melting the solder allowing disconnect or destroying the transistor and ignition.

As always feel free to test, shoot lots of video and no warranty.

 

[mcgovern61]

Fully understanding ignitions has been as much a weak spot for me as rebuilding carbs! Interesting comments! I wondered about the ballast resistor on the coils since I am using an '81 set of coils and ignition and they do not have the ballast resistor that is used on the '82 and '83 setup. I also do not have the resistor caps since I replaced my wires with Dyna wires. I wasn't sure if that would cause any issues, but three years and 16,000 miles so far and no issues (that I can tell anyway.)

My AM radio whines of course, even with adding a filter on the power line to the radio. I changed my plugs after a little over 10,000 miles and they actually had no wear on the electrode and were still gapped correctly. With my limited ignition knowledge, I am not sure if I am setting myself up for failure?

 

[joedrum]

this is a great thread ..in timesa of slow forum traffic its a good thing to have on active topics ...gary has great things to say to help oldwingers understand the ignitions ...stock and others .. :read:

 

[C5Performance]

joedrum » Wed Aug 05, 2015 9:14 am[/url]":1l22avn4]
this is a great thread ..in timesa of slow forum traffic its a good thing to have on active topics ...gary has great things to say to help oldwingers understand the ignitions ...stock and others .. :read:

Joe you are correct. I stumble onto emails or discussions we've had previously only to remember an important point long forgotten!