Mallory Unilite Coil

Rich/Alabama

Rich/Alabama

Member
Does anyone out there have any experience with using the Mallory #29219 coil with the unilite ignition and no ballast resistor? I read that it can be used that way without damaging the module. I have been using the 29216 coil and the Mallory supplied ballast resistor for the past 7 years without a problem but have recently installed a Holley 390cfm carb w/electric choke and would like to use the 12v source to the coil to power the choke. With the resistor, I am only getting a little over 4v at the coil and as Holley pointed out, it isn't enough for the choke to operate properly. Thanks,

Rich
 
I worked as a mechanic for 30 years during the carburetor years and I can personally tell you electric chokes have a high failure rate. Sometimes they only last a couple years before they burnout, it's the nature of any device with an electric heating element.

There is always the possibility of any electrical component shorting to ground. If your powering the choke from the coil and the choke were to short to ground and the ignition circuit was not protected by a fuse it would burn your wiring all the way back to the ignition switch. If the ignition circuit was protected by a fuse the car would quit running. Either way you be screwed!

Circuits that need to be powered by the ignition switch such as eelectric fuel pump, coils and electric chokes should have their own individual circuits that receive the voltage directly from the run side of the ignition switch. Even better is separate relays for each component controlled by the ignition switch. Each individual circuit should have its own fuse.

I went to Holley website and found the instructions for hooking up the electric choke. They absolutely forbid you from powering the choke off of the coil. Here is the link.

Jerry

http://holley.com/data/Products/Technical/199R7972-4.pdf
 
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Jerry/Ken,
I have the Holley instructions and that was what tipped me off to the coil voltage problem in the first place. I also have a new wiring harness with a separate circuit for the choke but I haven't installed it yet so was looking for an alternate way to hook up the choke without running a separate, fused circuit that my old fuse panel doesn't have. I figured if the black top Mallory coil didn't need the ballast resistor I could use that and not have a voltage problem but didn't really give any thought to the burnt up choke scenario, that would be bad. I guess the best thing to do is crawl up under the dash and installa fused wire to the choke that comes directly off of the ignition switch. Or like Ken said, I can just do without the choke completely but since it's new I'd like to at least give it a try. Thanks for the advice,

Rich
 
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