PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA
Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: fordblue72 on April 20, 2015, 01:09:50 PM
-
Hello to all, hope someone who has done this before can help. I have a 72 2.0 4-speed runabout that I want to put a Mallory dual point dist. on.I am using a MSD blaster 2 coil and a 0.80 OHM ballast resistor. My question is do I hook up both wires (stock wiring) from the harness to one leg of the ballast resistor then the other leg to the pos. of the coil . I know that the neg. from the dist goes to the neg of the coil. I am not going to do electronic ign. at this time. Thanks to all . Rich T. IN san jose ca
-
THATS A GOOD QUESTION CAUSE I HAVE THE SAME ENGINE AND SAME DISTRINUTOR
-
If you want a cheep electronic ignition fo the 2.0 go and find a 78 to 84 Volvo 240 series car (those have the 4cylinder engine) at a u-pull it , it is made by Bosch, the same people that made the 2.0 distributor for the pinto, then take the top parts off the Volvo dust install them into the pinto dust, the wire comes out from the dist to the electronic box, (all can be unplugged very easy , ) and grab the coil also, it the blue top one, very high output, to this day I have never seen one fail, it also takes the same cap the pinto takes, the last one I done was 15 years ago, I think they charge me around thirty bucks for the whole mess, hope this helps , later Blaine 😜
-
Where did both wires bolt down before?
-
As you mentioned, the distributor points wire goes to the coil negative terminal. If the new coil needs a ballast resistor with a total of 0.8 ohms, you need to bypass the Pinto's red-light green resistor wire since it has 1.3 to 1.4 ohm resistance per the factory wiring diagram. So your wiring would be the non-resistant red-light green wire coming from the starter solenoid along with one side of the new ballast resistor connected to the coil positive terminal. The other side of the new ballast resistor needs a new wire connected to a switched +12V source that is on only when the ignition switch is in the run position. Suggest tapping in to the non-resistant red-light green wire running from the ignition switch to the fuse panel fuse F-4. Surprised MSD did not offer wiring instructions.
-
I am replacing the stock dist. because I cannot find a vacuum control unit for under $40.00, so I went ahead and found a Mallory 2558201 dual point for about $60.00 seemed like a good deal. I could just use the stock coil but I had a good MSD blaster 2 coil on the shelf (for about 10 years) so no info left because I usually use a MSD6A and a hall effect dists. on all my other cars.(simple plug ins) the two original wires going to the positive terminal of the stock coil use the original push on connector from Ford. I was not aware that they were a resistor type . So I guess I just disconnect and do not use that push on terminal or either of those two wires if using this MSD coil that requires a ballast . Sorry to be so long winded, Thankyou all for the help. Rich T.
-
Not sure what your plans are for the car (nostalgic, street, performance, racing, etc.). That Mallory dual point distributor is well made but has only centrifugal advance which is okay for racing. For street, I would prefer both vacuum and centrifugal advances. Points require maintenance and especially the Mallory points. If the car sits for a week or two with out use, the Mallory points occasionally stop working and need their electrical contacts polished up to function again. This was while using a CD ignition, so maybe there was not enough current for the points to self clean. For low maintenance street use, I suspect a stock distributor that has both vacuum and centrifugal advances along with a Pertronix point less conversion would provide the most enjoyment.
Not sure which MSD blaster 2 coil you have, but their instructions are not clear for cars with a factory installed ballast resistor. Suggest calling MSD to see if the Pinto's 1.3 to 1.4 ohm factory resistance wire will work in place of the MSD ballast resistor. If yes, MSD will probably say to just wire the new coil like the stock one. Just for sanity check, measure the resistance of the factory resistance wire to be in the ball park of the values given (the factory wiring diagram could be off). Measure from the fuse panel fuse F-4 to the lead lifted from the coil positive side with key out of the ignition switch.
http://www.msdignition.com/Products/Coils/Stock_Replacement/8200_-_Chrome_Blaster_2_Coil,_w/Ballast_Hardware.aspx
http://www.msdignition.com/Products/Coils/Stock_Replacement/8202_-_Blaster_2_Coil_Hi-Performance.aspx
http://www.msdperformance.com/Products/Coils/Stock_Replacement/8203_-_Blaster_2_Coil_w/Ballast___Hardware.aspx
-
OEM will be about 1.35 ohm or so and the resistance wire is crimped in the middle of that lead somewhere. You can use the OEM resistance with MSD coil but the coil volts will be down a bit because of it, one of the ways they bump that up and the new 'hot' coil does not do it, only the resistor, meaning you can do it with a stock coil too. Lower ballast will burn points up faster though.
That new distributor will eat gas with no vacuum there. And with todays' fuel octane and older high compression engine may well ping too. Twice the number of pointsets means twice the adjusting, half the error X2 will have you working on them quite often and the stiff breaker springs too. I used to have to adjust mine up like every two weeks or so, electronic is so much better.