On Sun, 22 May 2011 00:11:15 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

On 5/21/2011 7:53 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 21 May 2011 19:00:43 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

My 1974 Dodge Dart was the first year of electronic
ignition. Won't run when wet, or when ballast resistor blows
for no reason.
Mine always ran when wet - I'd hose it down with the carwash to show
people that a slant six mopar COULD run when wet.

Always had a spare resistor in the glove-box untill I "got smart" and
mounted a spare on the fire-wall.

The trick was to get the high quality aftermarket resister that was
sealed. The resistors I had trouble with were open in the back exposing
the resistor elements to the air. The open units would corrode and burn
out. I never had a problem with one of the sealed resistors.

TDD
Corosion wasn't the problem - thermal cycling was - and they NEVER
made the vehicle quit - as it was the "start" prtion that failed. I
had quite a few sealed or "monolithic" resistors fail too - not just
the open-backed ones. Not just on my own Mopars - but on a lot of
customer's cars. There WERE brands that lasted longer than others -
can't remember what the good ones or bad ones were, but I Think
Neihoff was one of the good ones, and Blue Streak (standard) one of
the poor ones.

The good ones carried the heat away better than the poor ones, and
supported the resistor better so they didn't fracture.