1972 Imperial LeBaron coupe posted by Yohai Rodin
Cohort Wordless Outtake: “Do I Carry A Spare Ballast Resistor? No; What’s That?”
– Posted on January 7, 2015
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Curbside Classics Archives
1972 Imperial LeBaron coupe posted by Yohai Rodin
Hee hee. The ballast resistor is the most social of electrical creatures. As long as there’s a new one in your glovebox, the old one on the firewall will last for many contented years. But deny it a companion, and it soon dies of loneliness.
…as social as its buddy the Orange Box.
The Capn’ wins today’s award for best technical writing! 🙂
+1
So true! 15 years I had my Plymouth, and 15 years the spare ballast resistor sat in the glove box……
The only times I ever had one go out was when I didn’t have a spare anywhere. Not even at home.
Only real Mopars have ballast resistors…
The problem was not so much the electrical issues as the Temp Air 2 plastic control module on the right fender that cracks with age and leaks coolant. Try finding parts including the diaphragm to keep the auto climate control working. I had a 73 4 door hardtop and loved e
very minute of it.
According to http://www.imperialclub.com 70s MB-S-Classes used the same unit, except in metal. Direct replacement.
“Never mind, I found the problem. There’s a compact car stuck in the intake again.”
HAHA! Thanks for that. If that guy’s not careful, he’ll get sucked in too.
Excellent!
hehehe
Hey – for real ! Good !
I had a ballast resistor die on me while stationed at NAS Millington for AE School. My ’70 Charger would crank, but die as soon as the key was released. I discovered that if I held the key just shy of full cranking position, the car would run; albeit, there were no instrument panel functions/signals/etc. So, with my right had holding the key, and steering with my left, I managed to drive to a Dodge dealer approximatley two miles from the base. I pulled into the service entrance, and described my problem to one of the mechanics. He blithely replied “Oh,, no problem!” strolled off and came back with a (then) $2 part, installed it and I was on my way..having increased my automotive knowledge! A couple of years later, I tried to assist my supervisor w/ the same problem on his Cordoba, but his ignition switch didn’t have the “sweet spot” that would allow it to run; at least I knew what part to get and how to fix it!! 🙂
Pull the wires off the ballast resistor and connect them together. Your coil will see full voltage and may overheat and fail, but it’s the same thing you were doing with your ignition switch “sweet spot”.
“It’s so big I don’t know where to start looking.”
Or, as heard from the other end of the phone, “No son, there is not an app for that.”
I don’t know what’s more ridiculously awesome… a ’75-’79 Lincoln Town Coupe or a fuselage Chrysler two door. That much car with only two doors defies logic 🙂 . I’ll take two, thanks!
+1
All Chrysler fusies are over the top but the two door coupe takes the cake. Nothing says typical American excess like a 20 foot plus two door. Should come with a Smart Car dinghy to drive for parts, when the ballast resistor fails and you don’t have a spare.
> Should come with a Smart Car dinghy to drive for parts, when the ballast resistor fails and you don’t have a spare.
Hmmm, I may be able to talk JPC into a Chrysler yet. I bet a Miata would fit in that trunk… 🙂
Ha. Or on one of those scooter racks often seen on the back of pristine Windstars. 🙂
Isn’t “pristine Windstar” an oxymoron?
A piece of wire with an alligator clip on each end worked to get you to where you could get a new ballast resistor. Of course you had to know what a ballast resistor was, and if you did, you probably carried one in the car, they were so cheap!
However, on the great big Imperial shown, the problem might be that the guy’s arms aren’t long enough to reach the ballast resistor on the firewall, behind the big, round air cleaner on top of the 440!
Doesn`t that plug into the flux capacatator? I believe it controls the jigowatt output.
I remember my uncle that drove a 73 Chevrolet Nova in 1983 when I was 10 who used to carry spare distributor condensers and breaker points in the globe box! I don’t miss those dark days of obsolete automotive technology of carburetors, points, distributors, coils, mechanical fuel pumps and cleaning carbon off the rotor and bottom of the distributor at all!
And not cool! Taking up two parking spaces like that!
**kidding**
> And not cool! Taking up two parking spaces like that!
He’s doing that for your protection. Small cars parked too close may not be powerful enough to escape the Imperial’s gravity well and get sucked-in.
Technically he is but if you look, the front of his car is even with the front of the space!
If you want to sound like an Instant Expert in electrical problem diagnosis, here are some handy theories to offer:
1) Grounding problem;
2) Noise;
3) Defective cabling.
These work in most cases. Impress your friends.
As a Mopar guy I’m all too familiar with the ballast resistor. It’s one of those things that, once you learn about it, you feel all smug ‘n’ sh*t about knowing. You almost look forward to the problem happening on your next Valiant, and you want somebody to be there to see you pop a new one in and cure the ailment. I remember going to the local parts store for one back in the ’90s and being asked if I wanted one for “marine application”. I asked about the difference from the landlubber resistor, and they showed me. The auto part had an open well in back that the coiled wire traversed, while on the boat version, the well was filled with wax. I bought two of that one.
Haha – know exactly what you mean. In college, I was driving down the street and heard the unmistakable sound of a Mopar engine trying to start with a wet distributor. I pulled over, asked the attractive girl driving to pop the hood. I grabbed the can of WD-40 from my trunk and gave the inside of the dist cap a shot, and she started right up. Felt like Superman. 🙂
My 58 Ford Custom 300 had one of those ballast on the firewall too. I always carried an extra in the glove box. I had to put the new one on once at 2AM in -4 degree St Louis weather. Fixed her right up in a few minutes!!
It appears that the parking lot that this car is parked in was designed for much smaller cars as the Chrysler is taking up one and a half parking spaces….Dave W.
It appears that the parking lot that this car is parked in was designed for much smaller cars
I noticed the same thing. At least he parked with the excess length in another parking space, rather than sticking out in the traffic lane.
Parking something that size is a challenge. In my brief moment of middle aged crazy, I joined the SUV mob. I liked some of the luxo features of the thing, but coudn’t get it into a parking spot to save my life. Look at where the lines are vs where I have the car parked. Now I’m a Jetta, and get it within the lines, first time, every time.
My daily is a Crown Vic – while not as big as an Imperial, it’s still a challenge sometimes getting a 211″ vehicle into small-sized modern parking spaces! Not to mention parallel parking (which is the only kind in my neighborhood). I do not envy the drivers of anything bigger than I have–the likes of an Imperial (or an old Deville or a crew-cab long bed pickup) must be truly maddening to try to park at times.
In the ’90s in NYC I had an acquaintance who picked up cheap a pretty decent mid-70s, pre-downsizing Fleetwood as a hipster pimpmoile. When parking in crowded Manhattan lots, he would frequently be charged for two spaces.
Sometimes he would only start driving up onto the lot, and the parking attendant would come running out of his booth, waving his arms at the car, making the international gesture for “Go away, you not welcome here!” Some places would simply not let him leave the Caddy at all.
I’ve been driving Panthers for so long that I can park the things blindfolded 😀 !
I drove SUVs, Ford Explorers to be exact, from 2000 to about 2012, and I never had a problem. Even the last and biggest one, a 2002 never gave me problems. Oddly enough, it seemed to turn on a dime-I could easily park in a spot on the other side of the road opening to oncoming traffic in that other lane. Now I drive an Escape and even though its considerably smaller, it seems more difficult to park.
This was shot in Israel. I suspect parking spaces there weren’t designed for cars like this.
A-ha, I was wondering where this was. I saw “Canada House” on the building in the background, and palm trees. I assumed it was the Canadian embassy somewhere warm. Now if they could send some of that heat, and that Imperial, home to me I would be grateful. 🙂
Did you say Israel? ***Old woman gravelly chain smoking voice*** Booooocahhhhhh! 😉
I wonder how many Israeli cars are Fords? Probably not many, since idiot Henry wrote “The International Jew,” & they were understandably miffed about that. You’d think silence on this subject would’ve been a small price to pay for Ford to keep all those supposedly rich Jewish customers.
Someone should’ve written a pamphlet called “The International Palm Tree,” for they pose a menace to society, such as falling fronds & providing a home for pests. Worst of all, they don’t even provide much shade. Just the same, California has been polluted by them, as if native species like the live oak aren’t good enough.
When I was a lad, my dad fell out of one while trimming. The next week a guy with a backhoe came and dug out all the palms on our lot.
Good for him! I can think of only 2 good uses for palm trees: coconuts & dates.
Driving a Chevy extended cab pickup, I have resigned myself to parking far from the store. I also look for a pull-through opportunity, because the only thing worse than narrow spaces is trying to back the Exxon Valdez out in parking lot traffic.
I owned a Silverado extended cab for five years and developed the exact same strategy, and now that I drive a much smaller car, I still do the pull-through. It’s just easier, and it seems to be a lot safer.
Beautiful Imperial – love the road wheels with body-color inner rings.
We’ve come a long way with electrical systems!
Until something goes wrong… then you wish the problem was just a ballast resistor.
“Until something goes wrong… then you wish the problem was just a ballast resistor.”
The truest thing Ive ever read on here!
Bingo!
In order to receive a parking lot contract, many contractors present more parking spots than realistically possible. They do this by making the spots about as small as coach seats on an airplane. We also have people involved in the process that are discriminatory in spot size, not based on the average size of the vehicle that will use the spot, but based on what they believe the average size of the vehicle should be. Over the past thirty years, we’ve see a deliberate shrinking of parking lot spots.
So, the problem isn’t the car. It is the arrogance or the incompetence of the parking lot designers.
There is a lot to what you’ve said. I suppose one defense though, as cars became radically smaller during the 1980’s, it probably made some sense to shrink average spot size. In 1984, nobody was predicting that full size-trucks and SUV’s would become the defacto full-size car. The average 1984 car was roughly a GM FWD A-Body in size.
From roughly 1986-1992, I drove a 1972 Pontiac Grandville, a strange mix of GM B and C body – it was huge. On my college campus, it was easy to look down a row of cars and locate mine, its rear quarters always stuck out about a 18 inches beyond anything else in the lot.
I did get a ticket for full-size car in a compact spot once. I was rather proud of it.
I had never seen Compact Only spots before my first trip to California in the ’70s. I was driving a Cougar convertible, and figured, “Well, a Cougar’s not as big as full-size car, it should probably qualify as a compact.” So I tried to park in one. But finding that the Mercury was overshooting all four yellow lines of the space, I had to admit, “No, I guess by Compact they mean something a lot smaller than a Cougar.” After that, I never attempted to squeeze into a Compact Only spot again.
Well, the size of parking spaces is government mandated pretty much everywhere. Parking lot layouts are reviewed during the design stage at the municipal level; there’s little to nothing for a paving contractor to decide about it.
FWIW, this was shot in Israel. The average size of car there is undoubtedly considerably smaller than in the US. never mind this gunboat.
A lot of it is zoning laws – they will say that a shopping center needs to have x number of spots. So fit them in, they make them smaller.
Yes, most cities have a mandatory minimum number of parking places that must accompany any new building. For most buildings, parking does not generate any rental revenue, and is overhead to be minimized any way possible. So, more spots in less space is the way to do it.
Per wiki, the length of that car is 19.08 feet. I’ve designed parking lots for many years. The standard space is 9ft x 18ft. Yep, she’s a little long!
Magnificent is about the only word to describe this car.
I don’t recall Chrysler offering those wheels with body color trim, nice custom touch. And, and don’t think I ever saw these wheels on a fuselage Imperial, but I would imagine that the dealer lucky enough to sell one would be happy to help you get a set.
The road wheels were available for Imperial, but I think the centers were silver. I agree, the body colour centers are a nice touch.
Were they? Huh. I thought the Imp-only 5″ bolt circle meant they never used standard Mopar wheels on them. I figured the hubs/studs had been changed on this car. They do look good here.
On second thought, you’re right. I even did some research before posting the above, but apparently not enough.
I looked at the 1972 brochure on oldcarbrochures.com and it seemed to imply that the road wheels were available. I was a bit confused, as Imps still used 5″ bolt circle at that time (which you would know even better than I).
I just went back there and they have a 1973 dealer databook as well. It shows the road wheels available for Chryslers but only the standard wheel covers for Imperial.
You don’t often see palm trees and the word “Canada” in the same photo. Victoria or Vancouver, perhaps?
Since the photo’s from Israel, I’m guessing that’s the Canadian Embassy or a consulate.
“Looks like you got a short in your catastrophic converter, Vern!”
Got one hanging on the garage wall right now. You just never know.
I think the best part of the picture is how that car is NEVER going to fit in one of those parking places!
I used to keep companion ballast resistors in the glove box of my ’69 Valiant and my parent’s ’77/’78 B-body wagons.
I love that side shot of the Imperial. We all know they have huge hoods, but when seen opened in profile you can really see that!
If you have an old Mopar a spare ballast resistor is almost standard equipment.
I carry spare ballast resistors in both my ’68 Fury and my ’79 St.Regis. About thirty years ago there was a Duster broke down on the side of the road back in the days when my ’67 Sport Fury was my daily driver. I pulled over to see if I could help and there was a younger driver who was trying to figure out why his car wouldn’t start. After a minute or two I got out my spare ballast resistor and swapped it out and the Duster started right up. The owner of the Duster was new to older Mopars, so I suggested he pick up an extra to keep in his glove box. He tried to pay me for the spare I had but I wouldn’t let him. When I got home, I pulled another spare out of my stash that I knew was good and put it in the Fury’s glove box.
My brand new ’74 Dodge van wouldn’t start. Called a tow truck to take it to the dealer. It cost $10 for the tow way back then, I was going to pay the tow, but the service advisor said to let them add it to the bill and pay everything at once. Ballast resistor was warranty, so they marked the tow bill up to $25! Handling fee…
Then I attended the Mopar tech school and found out about ballast resistors. I was working as a Ford dealer tech, the used car repair guy had a Dodge pick up that wouldn’t start. I went right to the resistor and of course it was burned out. Just impressed the hell out of the used car guy. Anything electrical was a mystery to him.
I converted my Plymouth from FWD to RWD and upgraded the ignition from a 4 prong ballast to a 2 prong. I then had extra prongs with no use. I just put another 2 prong ballast alongside of the other 2 prong ballast and viola, super spare. If it blows, all I have to do is rotate both plugs and off I go.
My favorite ballast resistor story involved a rather good mechanic (who favored Chevys) working on his father’s fuselage New Yorker. All signs pointed to the ballast resistor, but when it was replaced, nothing changed. Eventually, I got tired of watching him try to figure out the problem and left. The next time I saw the guy, he told me that it was, indeed, the ballast resistor, but the new one he had used to fix it was bad, too!
Was the ballast resistor one of those things specifically designed to be the weak link in the electrical system to save other components? If so, it’s yet another example of Chrysler truly taking ‘extra care in engineering’.
My 73 Valiant Regal did this twice first time another ballast resistor got it going the second time it chewed the distributor drive gear off, nothing else ever went wrong.
Great compisition, great photo!
Ah…the days when someone with just a smidgen of knowledge could get their “dead” car back on the road.
On a related note, I have been teaching my teen son the intricacies of an automatic choke–use and adjustment. We are restoring and classic Mustang, and a new Holley four-barrel was just bolted on the 302. I am nearing 50, and want to make sure at least one Millennial knows how to fettle a carburetor before I die.
Back in those days when I drove Mopars I always carried a spare in the glovebox. They were dirt cheap.
I would love to drive one of these Imperial Coupes. I have never even sat in one.
“Guy at the gas station says the engine is missing, guess he said that so he didn’t have to check the oil.”
Both my ’70’s Dodge vans had a half dozen used ballast resistors I’d swiped off Mopars in the junkyard in the glove box…….and never had to replace one! Must be as long as they had the company of others of their own kind, they’d live forever!
My mechanic friend made sure all his Mopar-owning customers had a new one in the glovebox and were coached on how to change it if the car wouldn’t start….including the older widow ladies. In order to help them identify it under the hood, he had it circled with bright yellow caulk! And they did it themselves more than once!
Imagine finding a mechanic like that today. Now, they’d be more than happy to charge $50 (plus parts) for that simple, no-brainer repair every time and to hell with establishing a long-term business relationship.
GM had a component that got “lonely” as well. If you had an early HEI distributor it was wise to carry a spare module, along with the screwdriver you needed to get the cap off and the nut driver needed to remove the module. If you had all these items in a little box in the trunk it prevented module failure. Leave home without it and you were tempting fate.
I was digging through my old tool box a few weeks ago and found a module that’s probably been in there for 25 years. Probably a Mopar ballast in there somewhere too…
Didn’t Ford have their own “keep a spare on-hand” part? The TFI module… their version of the electronic ignition control module.
Used to keep one in the glovebox of my ’85 Tempo 😀 .
Beyond the inconvenience of possibly having to lay on top of the 440 in that Imperial to get at the ballast resistor, I discovered that fuselage Imperial hoods never seem to open as wide as they should.
That combined with a scalp splitting hood latch , would have me taking extra care under the hood.
Lose the canvas on the roof and I would put it in the top 5 most beautiful cars of the 1970s.
Which is why my Polara uses a Pertronix II and instead of the crappy Holley 2bbl carb (several) which won’t idle properly the car also uses a Motorcraft 2150 and now runs like a top.
The original Holley and ballast resistors are now in deep storage.
Ford carb on a Mopar?! Sacrilege!
This Imperial will have a 440, with a Holley 4-bbl carb if it’s still factory under the hood. (I don’t remember what year they switched from Carter to Holley carbs, but my cousin’s ’72 NYer had a Holley.)
Jeeze ;
I miss these old Land Barges .
-Nate
My almost all time favorite car was our ’68 Dodge Monaco – big two ton with a 383 – load the trunk and cruise the west coast in total comfort ! But that’s where I learned about ballast resistors – always carried TWO in the glove box. Those resistors all looked like they came from a 1908 Renault – the most antique looking part on the whole car – and the things would go bonkers at least every 8 months or so ! Always Miiiilllleees from a dealer or parts house ! But other than that, that Monaco was a lover !
The modern-day equivalent of a Mopar ballast resistor or GM HEI module would have to be the cam position sensor on a Ford Powerstroke diesel.
The part only costs 25-30 bucks and takes about 10 minutes to install. BUT- they often fail without warning and without a spare, you’re looking at either a costly tow bill or a long walk home.
A spare fuel pump relay or a jumper wire is good to have in a A2 VW.
Growing up in Tucson, old cars live forever and you still see MANY. But I remember when this Imperial was new. My girlfriend at the time lived on Foothills Dr. Her neighbor, the actor Lee Marvin, drove an Imperial coupe in baby blue. Once when my Honda 50 broke down in front of his house, he helped me push it up to his carport and loaned me some hand tools to get it going again! Desertpagoda
To correct the title, this sweet Imperial is in reality a 73. That`s because 72s did not have silvery areas separating the body and bumpers. The body of this specific 2d ht is painted in Y2 (Sun Fire Yellow), interior is MRXW (white leather) and vinyl top is V1W (white). It is definitely sweet by any simpler words!