Our cars are set up for Old School ignition!! The ballast resistor lowered the voltage from 12v to 6v to reduce the ware and tear on, or prolong the life of the points in the distributor (Old School). Every time the points just open and just close they would ark ever so slightly causing the pitting you would see on them. Less voltage less pitting longer life! The new electronic units (New School) have no points and are designed to work on 12v so lower voltage input using the ballast resistor (Old School), lowers output from your coil. So, half the rated voltage into the coil will yield only half of the rated output. Now if you had problems with your system as I believe you found, potentially you might have had less than 6v to your coil at idle having it operate at the bottom end of its operating capacity or minimum voltage it needs to operate, causing the missing you experianced! I hope this helps? Herb 1956 Plymouth Belvedere 361 1959 Coronet 326 Poly 1963 Fury 2D/HT 6.1 1963 Sport Fury Convertible 361 1970 Challenger RT 440 1999 Durango SLT 5.9 2006 300-C Heritage 5.7 2008 SRT-8 Magnum 6.1 St. Louis, MO. http://1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/mmo42009.html -------Original Message------- From: laborboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: 7/20/2009 8:15:23 AM To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: new electronic distributor problems What purpose does the ballast resistor serve? Herb wrote: > > > Yes, bypass it! Your system needs 10 or11v to operate to it's full > potential and it is only getting 6 or 7v through the ballast resister. > I am > sure you will see a difference. > >          > Herb > > 1956 Plymouth Belvedere 361 > 1959 Coronet 326 Poly > 1963 Fury 2D/HT 6.1 > 1963 Sport Fury Convertible 361 > 1970 Challenger RT 440 > 1999 Durango SLT 5.9 > 2006 300-C Heritage 5.7 > 2008 SRT-8 Magnum 6.1 > St. Louis, MO. > > http://1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/mmo42009.html > > > > > -------Original Message------- > > From: laborboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Date: 07/19/09 17:59:52 > To: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxx > Subject: RE: new electronic distributor problems > > I did not bypass my ballast resistor--are you recommending that? > Thank you for the guidance and advice. > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > ---- Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! '62 to '65 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ---- Please address private mail -- mail of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. I.e., send parts/car transactions and negotiations as well as other personal messages only to the intended recipient, not to the Clubhouse public address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! '62 to '65 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html. This email was sent to: arc.6265@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx u/?bUrDWg.bSONJP.YXJjLjYy ?p=TEXFOOTER