Resistor Wire on an 84 GW

[gbarrett]

Long story - short. Got back into town last night. Last stoplight before my driveway I hear the fan lightly hitting something. I left it for this morning. Opened the hood and see that the top alternator bolt is broken and sticking out. I pull the alternator and the A/C compressor to extract the remaining bolt from the head. Everything back together, heading over to the in-laws for lunch when everything goes dead. I open the hood and there is a small fire brewing near the alternator - I didn't get the wires far enough from the exhaust manifold and the DSPO must have removed the fusable links because my wife is now yelling that there is smoke coming from the dash!! Since we were less than a block from the in-laws, we towed it home behind a pickup. All the wiring is shot upto the firewall. I picked up wire in every color available and began piecing it together - making a few changes along the way.

My Haynes manual says there is supposed to be a resistor wire on the coil, but that diagram is for pretty much every year upto 1987. Do I need one of these, if so, where does it go?

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks,

Greg

[Shake N Bake]

If you're in there anyway, and you had stuff go up in smoke; maybe its time for some upgrading!

Personally, when the resistor to my coil went byebye I just went out to the parts store picked up a coil for I believe it was a 70s Dodge Pickup. Its 12v, so no resistor needed, and it eliminated the need for that **** Horseshoe connector (I had problems with those **** things melting after I installed the MSD)

Just a thought...

Andy

[ibnfe]

We replaced the resistor wire on a bud's rig with standard primary wire and bought an inline resistor from the local parts house. 1.35 ohms is what it needs to be. We attached it to the firewall with a couple of screws. Works like a champ. Matter of fact, he said his rig runs better now, but my guess is that was due to some other gremlins we fixed in the process....

[Michael F]

Even if you have a 12v coil the Duraspark module can not take the 12v and will overheat and eventualy fail, you need the resistor.

Myself and a few others have found this out the hard way! :eek:

[Mud Thrasher]

If you put an inline resistor on make sure that you put it between the starter relay and the alternator. Do Not put it after the alternator. If you do it will blow the resistor. I also found this out the hard way. The yellow resistor wire is designed to be one whole wire. Which means that it won't do right if you try splicing in wire to it.

[gbarrett]

Where does the resistor wire connect? What does it go between?

thanks,

Greg