Any ideas what a ballast resistor does?

[yingting]

Not urgent but a tech question I would like to know the answer to

[imperialdata]

Yes. When starting a car, the wiring via the start switch allows you to give the coil a full 12V and then a ballast resistor cuts in to drop the voltage that the coil runs at. Not seen very often on bike circuits though!
Hope that helps

[GSX Rat]

My understanding of the ballast resistor is as follows. A coil works at something like 9 volts(for arguments sake – it might not be exactly but bear with me) so the ballast resistor is used during normal running conditions to drop the voltage from the car/bike electrical system to the required voltage as imperial stated. However, during heavy load conditions on the battery such as cranking the engine over , pulling massive current the voltage across the battery drops so the coil is supplied straight from the battery (reduced voltage remember)so that it continues to function and provide a strong spark.

GSX750 Ratfighter / GSX600F / Beamish250 / Honda70 Rat

Blackboard paint – Covers a multitude of sins!

[SneakyPete]

GSX Hooly – exactly so – as found on 1100 Goldwings which run 6v coils with a ballast – 12v fat sparks for starting and reduced voltage for running.

Matt Black and no other

[Radar]

Ballast resistor – does it fight fat??!! – I’ll shut up now..

[Author]

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