LUVTruck.com

Trailer'd my parts Luv back to the burbs from out the farm, to prepare it for a Ute Muster. Never had it running before because i got it to use as a parts truck. Anyway thought i'd get it running so i could enter in the sand drags at the ute muster. Threw in a battery, topped up the water & checked the oil. Turned the key wound it over waiting for the gas to reach the carb, within a few seconds smoke started billowing from the ballast resister. I checked the wiring and it seems correct, negative wire from coil to dizzy(correct) Black/Blue wire to positive on coil(correct) Black/Yellow wire to ballast resister(correct). Im not familar with gasser Luvs engines, im more familiar with my Diesel Luv. Any ideas as to why my ballast resister is smoking? The Luv runs ok with the ballast resister disconnected but i know its not good for the points.

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1980 4x4 KBD40 ISUZU/Chev Luv
Factory Fitted c190 Diesel Engine, ARB BullBar, Ramsey Winch, Custom Tilt Tray,

Hmm... what's the voltage going into the resistor? Could also be that it got some dust on there, and it's burning the dust off. Could it be that the charging system is putting out too much voltage? Maybe there's a short.

If all the wiring is right, try checking the resistance through the coil. Could be that it has a short in there somewhere, and it's allowing too much wattage through the coil, and your resistor is acting like a fuseable link.

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1980 4X4 LUV daily driver, as stock as can be.

I have seen this problem before but is bad only if the points are stuck.

Usually it is dust, bugs or as i had happen to me is mud wasp or cutter bees. Check it out but i think that the smoking will quit after a while.

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1978 pro street step/side 455Buick, 4sp,4.11s, 31/18.5s

Question from Gary (1966):

I started my '66 Crown tonight (been sitting for over a year) and noticed the ballast resistor was smoking. I shut car down and disconnected battery. Car has been inside and dry. This resistor is fairly new. Anyone have any thoughts?

Reply from Dick:

If it happened out here in the desert, my guess would be it was soaked with packrat piss. Unless it is an incorrect resistor or someone mysteriously replaced your coil with a non-stock one, there isn't any way it would overheat unless the points stuck closed, and if that were the case, the car wouldn't run. It is normal for these to run hot - so maybe it just needs to bake off the accumulated crud.

This is from the chrysler imperial site. I thought it was funny. Good Luck.

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1980 4x4

This is exactly what was happening to me on my LUV. I had the aftermarket porcelain one.... That thing was feaking crazy hot would melt anything it touched... Any way i could not figure out why I wouldn't get spark from coil so troubleshooting UGH thing hot thing broke take thing out and bam had spark caveman happy .... Now my MSD 8.5 super wires came in today and i will be tossing that piece of S*() and hooking up the MSD 6A box!!! Good luck think i picked those things up through ROCK AUTO there the best when it comes to getting luv stuff for me...

Its all fixed now, smoke cleared after a few minutes.

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1980 4x4 KBD40 ISUZU/Chev Luv
Factory Fitted c190 Diesel Engine, ARB BullBar, Ramsey Winch, Custom Tilt Tray,