coil wires

[kawasaki kid]

my viva broke down the other day,it will start and run for about a minute then cut out dead as if lack of fuel but its deffinately not a fuel problem, in investigating the coil the two wires going to the positive side of the coil where the resitor is (mines negative earth) the insulation had melted completely inside the car, has anyone else ever had this problem? it has been converted to run on a alternator wheather this has caused a problem i dont know, but hope fully when i replace these wires she will be running again fingers crossed.

[1256man]

hello get your self one of these ballast resistors viva ones allways over heat
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-BALLAST-RESIS ... 19bd1dbf96

[pbottomley]

This is a common issue on all older cars, with the ignition switch left in the on position and the engine at a point where the points are closed, the coil will have a charge going through it and it will heat up, along with the ballast resistor. In my case its even melted a HT lead in half that was very close to the ballast resistor.

Under normal running conditions this should not be an issue, just whilst switch is on and engine is not running.

[kawasaki kid]

that does make sense actually cos it often stalls on me leaving the ignition hopefully that wont be an issue now cos i put nice ford carb on it i just hope it hasnt damsged the coil


cheers guys, soon the viva will be running again, yes