MSD High Vibration Coil with New Black Box Permatune

[madkow]

My car is a 1979 930. I was wondering if I will need to install an 0.8 OHM resistor to my new MSD Blaster coil, which will be connected to a new Black Box Permatune?

I've read old posts and they seem to be vague on this subject! I've heard that it shouldn't be used with an early Petronix points ignition and that you must be careful as to make sure that the wire lead that goes from the coil to the distributor cap is pushed in far enough into the coil or else face the consequences of a melted coil! I've also read about people using the Blaster Coil with a Permatune who have said that they haven't had any issues to deal with, but they left me in the dark never mentioning if they ever used this 0.8 OHM resistor.

When I bought my car 2 years ago, it came with an Accel Coil (which is similar to the blaster coil) and was connected to the OEM Bosch CDI. No issues back then!

Now I've installed the MSD coil in my car with the new Black Box Permatune (not to be confused with the silver box version) and I drove the car for 3 hrs and drove it very hard. I haven't seen any issues arising! But I just wonder about that "Resistor?" Is it really needed? I am beginning to wonder if that dude's coil burning was actually his fault for not pushing the main coil lead far enough into the coil. I like to check things twice! I hate being accident prone!

[Early_S_Man]

No, you don't need the ballast resistor with any CDI, be it Bosch, Permatune, or MSD!

[madkow]

Thankyou

Warren

[HarryD]

Originally posted by Early_S_Man
No, you don't need the ballast resistor with any CDI, be it Bosch, Permatune, or MSD!

Warren,

Kind of a tangential question. When they use them, what is the ballast resistor for?