How to tell if Ballasted or non-ballasted Ignition?

[Joe_flanagan]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out if my 91 Mini City is running a ballasted ignition or non-ballasted ignition as I need to get a new ignition coil. From what I have read ballasted systems came into place in 998cc engines after 1989 which would mean that mine should be a ballasted system however the ignition coil that is in it at the moment is a Lucas DBL101 which is a standard non-ballasted ignition coil. Could it be that the previous owner put in the wrong type of ignition coil or could he have bypassed the resistor to make it a non ballast system and if so how would I be able to tell if this was done?

I know its really bad for the system to run a ballasted ignition coil in a non-ballasted ignition system so can anyone tell me a sure way of determining which system is in place other than the wire colour coding as I am pretty sure it has been re-wired as a white & black wire is now connected to the ignition coil rather than a white or white & pink one.

Thanks,
Joe

[pump101]

The white and pink wire would certainly suggest that it was ballasted at some point but it may have been re wired. Others may confirm this.

[Joe_flanagan]

Yea there is a white and pink one that has resistor written on it which has been cut and then there is a white and black wire that feeds into a pink wire in the loom and that is connected to the (-) terminal on the coil. Is there any way of figuring it out by taking voltage readings from the terminals or anything like that.

[pump101]

Yea there is.. if you measure voltage across the positive and negative on the coil you will probably find it to be 12 to 13.5v ish. This would indicate its a standard non ballasted coil.

If the pink was connected you would expect to find 6 to 7 volts across the same terminals.

Hope this helps.
Ian

[woody]

You say the white/black wire is joined to a pink wire but there is no original pink wire in the loom. Do you still have points or do you have electronic ignition( if so what colour are the cables). Check if the white/yellow cable is still connected to a seperate spade on the starter motor . Do you have a rev counter? The fact that the resistor wire is cut would indicate that there has been some effort made at converting it to non ballest.

[keith]

i stand to be corrected but i would put a meter on the + side of the coil with the ignition on.. if you have a lot less than 12v (nominal amount, assuming the battery is ok) then you have a ballasted system -

[woody]

If you have points and they are open you will also get 12volts on a ballast system and 8volts when they are closed.

[keith]

also, there's more info here....

http://www.accuspark.co.uk/faqs.html#q1

[Joe_flanagan]

Thanks a million for the help guys. Yea I have a rev counter and I still have points. The black and white wire is connected to the negative of the coil and then back into the loom. It looks to connect to a pink cable but its actually just pink tape covering the connection. I'll check the voltage across the two terminals this evening when I get home and see if it is around 12volts.

Thanks again for the help.