Pinto Car Club of America

I am in the process of converting my 71 sedan from point ignition to Pertronix electronic ignition, but I have some questions about the coil.

I have a factory service manual but it doesn't have a wiring diagram for the ignition system.  Also, the factory service manual does not mention anything about a ballast resistor.  However, there was a ballast resistor on the car mounted next to the coil and the coil was wired for power from it.  To further complicate things, the ballast resistor was bypassed with a jumper and the coil won't fire if the jumper is disconnected.  The coil does not say "Ford" or FoMoCo on it and I belioeve it is an aftermarket coil because it is rather new and shiny and says "use with extenral ballast resistor" on the side.

However, that may all be moot since the coil I want to use is an old Mallory Mag-Spark unit I purchased on eBay.  i received no instructions with the Mallory coil and it doesn't say if it needs a ballast resistor.

So my question is really do I need a ballast resistor with a Mallory Mag-Spark coil and Pertronix electronic ignition?

Thanks!

I'm running the pertronic ignition with a Mallory High voltage coil and DON'T use a ballast resister. Things have been running the 2000, Crower cam, Spearco man w/Holly 4 barrel, and headers, in my 73 for over a year now and no problems.

Thanks!  I was just worried because this coil is a old unit that Mallory doesn't list on their website.  I sent an e-mail to the help desk at Mallory.

I hooked the Mallory coil up to the points ignition last night and just switching coils made starting the car easier and made it idle much smoother.  I can't wait to see what electronic ignition will do!

Well, problem solved.  The coil is an old Voltmaster Mark II coil that requires an external ballast resistor.  Looks like I will be skipping the Mallory coil for now.

If you can't use the coil you have, just find a non balast coil from a wrecking yard for a couple of bucks and put in the pertronix. It will do wonders for the way the 2000 will run. I don't think you can use a resister with the pertronix and get it to work right, might be wrong as I have never tried it that way. It works real nice in the 73.