Essex V6 Ignition Coil

[Erich Stahler]

In my 3000m I am getting 12 volts on the wire supplying the +ve terminal on the coil on a multimeter with the wire disconnected, if I then crank the starter motor it drop to 8 or 9 which must be the starter motor drain.

I am assuming from the above that the coil supply is not ballasted and I should therefore be running a normal 12 volt coil, not a 12 volt ballast coil as currently fitted?

[plasticpig72]

Is the Ballast still fitted. On my 1975 3000M the ballast was fitted on the drivers side down low.
I bypassed the Ballast and fitted a Bosch Coil 12 volt.
My car has a Brise pre-engaged starter with integral solenoid. So i removed the original starter solenoid and fitted a fused relay to feed Brise starter (no high current through ignition switch).
Runs well.
Aaln

[Erich Stahler]

plasticpig72 said:

Is the Ballast still fitted. On my 1975 3000M the ballast was fitted on the drivers side down low.
I bypassed the Ballast and fitted a Bosch Coil 12 volt.
My car has a Brise pre-engaged starter with integral solenoid. So i removed the original starter solenoid and fitted a fused relay to feed Brise starter (no high current through ignition switch).
Runs well.
Aaln

Thanks Alan.

[Dire Grammes]

You will find it worth your while to have a closer look into the cranking voltage, when cranking the engine the battery voltage should not fall below 9.6 Volts when fully charged and there should be very little difference between battery Voltage and the ignition Voltage at the coil
An observation on my part

[Erich Stahler]

Dire Grammes said:

You will find it worth your while to have a closer look into the cranking voltage, when cranking the engine the battery voltage should not fall below 9.6 Volts when fully charged and there should be very little difference between battery Voltage and the ignition Voltage at the coil
An observation on my part

Noted.

[RCK974X]

For info -

Ballasted coils are typically 6 volt, so that coil still delivers a full spark on cranking (switch on starter shorts the ballast whilst cranking), to make starting easier.
Ballast is simply a resistor, which can be a wire (Fords had a 'blue wire') or a resistor ceramic block (BL & Triumph) of a few ohms.

6 volts allows for a not so healthy battery .....