No Spark - Ignition Ballast Resistor Blew up

[Memmer99]

I've been fighting a few electrical issues for the past 2 weeks. 1st problem was we were hanging out at a cove and went to start up and nothing. No beeps and the dash was totally dead. After about an hour i finally decided to hit the master reset at the back of the engine. The boat fired right up and we took off. Then about half way to the dock I lost all power and the boat died, no beeps and the dash was dead again. So I hit the reset and we just idled back in.

Yesterday I pulled it off the trailer and it just seemed to be running very rough. I idled over to pick up some friends and it just died, it would crank but just seems like no spark. Opened the dog house and I noticed that my ignition ballast resistor had blown up and there was white dust everywhere. I went to Autozone and got the closest replacement resistor that I could find and still no spark.

I replaced my coil, spark plugs, and upgraded to the Mallory EI last year and it ran great until now.

Has anyone ever blown up a resistor like that? Any help on where to start would be great.

Thanks!!

[wotan2525]

I'm pretty sure with an upgraded EI system you can bypass the resistor. I'd try that and see if the coil can get enough voltage to fire.

[Memmer99]

Yeah I remember reading about that so I tried it on the water but no luck. Do you think it's possible that I fried the new coil? or I'm thinking the EI burnt up somehow.

[OUI]

When I switched to an EI a Prestolite system. I had to switch the coil. The new system needed a coil with an internal
resistor and then I needed to disconnect the old external resistor.

[Memmer99]

I think i traced the problem to the EI. I went ahead and bought the Pedtronix 1582 just because I want to get rid of the ballast resistor (just another point of failure.) I'll install it tonight along with a new coil with resistance and see what happens.