Re: Ballast resistor & resistance wire, aftermarket ignitions

[Tom Harais <tjhemh@domain.elided>]

Doug:

Only problem with your theory of more voltage in, more voltage out is:
It's really more voltage in, more potential voltage out. Your coil only
generates as much voltage as is necessary to complete the circuit. i.e.
it's really the resistance of the secondary system that determines the
output voltage. And, most of that resistance is probably the spark plug
gap.

So, even if you have a "Super Hercules 100,000 volt coil", if it can
jump the spark plug gap at 20,000 volts, that is all the voltage your
going to be firing.

This is of course not to say that you didn't notice a performance change
in your engine. It's possible that due to the lower primary feed with
the resistance wire, you may have not been getting consistent, 100% fire
at speeds, whereas with the replacement wire perhaps you were. Hence, it
seemed like more power.

Tom H.