Ignition Ballast Resistors

[stangmon97]

I just converted my buick over to 12 volts and no one can seem to give me any advice on this ballast resistor I bought. I called the company I bought the parts from and they only told me where to put it, they had no advice on what it actually was.

so what is is this thing?

do I have to put it in?
and what happens if I dont?

thankss guyss

[Pinhead]

With a DMM measure the primary resistance. I have a feeling that the resistance would be pretty low and wouldn't be able to handle the current draw at 12 volts (more accurately 14.4v).

[Nick]

I've been told the purpose of an ignition ballast resistor was to reduce the voltage present at the contact breaker points in distributors so equipped. Supposedly, applying full system voltage all the time would cause points to burn out faster. Older GM starters have an additional terminal on the solenoid that has full battery voltage only when the starter is running (or at least the solenoid is energized). This terminal was wired to the distributor so that full battery voltage would be available when cranking to make starting easier.