Afternoon All,
I'm trying to sort out a hot coil issue and I think the solution is
the ballast resistor. I can not find a wiring diagram for the 82(can)GLT
I think that the ballast resistor is wired wrong. I have a blue wire on the
single terminal end and another blue wire on the double terminal end.
Anyone have access to the correct wiring diagram and correct color of wiring for the ballast resistor.

Thanks

John I.

What is your engine code? It is the 6th and 7th digits of the VIN. Canada had different engines available than in USA cars that year, and the ignition system for each is different. Yours (if actually a 1982 Canadian market car) should be 41 or 84. I have the 1982 Green Book, but need the engine code to tell you what ignition wiring was originally used.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (V8), 98 S90, and XC60. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

Evening Bob,
engine code is 84
I would love to find a good wiring harness for this car or even a used one that I can rebuild. It's mostly splices and heat shrink tubing

Thanks for the help and fast reply

John I.

You have the B23E engine with K-Jet fuel system and a "breakerless electronic" ignition system. I don't know if this engine was ever offered in the USA market....think not. The diagram says that this ignition system was also used on the B21F-Turbo of that year.

The Volvo diagram does not identify a ballast resistor but shows what appears to be a large connector (resistor?) with a Blue wire coming from the fuse panel. The Blue wire is not fused, it is on the upstream side of the fuses and receives 12V directly from the ignition switch. That connector looks a LOT like the ballast resistor in other diagrams where the system is so equipped!

Somewhere before the large connector/resistor, the Blue wire from the fuse panel enters a small connector and two Blue wires exit. One goes to the large connector/resistor and the other supplies power to the ignition control unit.

Exiting the connector/resistor is a Brown wire to the 15+ terminal on the coil.

The "connector" is simply shown as a large rectangular object joining the Blue and Brown wires. In the B23E diagram it is not identified at all, and has no bypass wiring to shunt full battery voltage to the coil when the starter is operated. So it is either simply a connector or is a resistor that is in the coil's 12V supply circuit constantly.

Don't know if this helps, but that's what Volvo tells us.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (V8), 98 S90, and XC60. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

"So it is either simply a connector or is a resistor that is in the coil's 12V supply circuit constantly."
It's a ballast resistor. It is bypassed it the start mode (starter engaged) but in circuit in the run mode. Starting requires higher voltage to the spark plugs.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.

In the 1982 Green Book wiring diagrams (p.32) for the OP's B23E engine (and the B21F-Turbo) there is no starter bypass. The starter circuit is completely absent from that diagram. The resistor (assuming that's what it is) is directly in circuit (ie: in series) with the 12V feed to the coil from the ignition switch. It's puzzling that in the other diagrams showing this thing, it has a code letter and is identified in the legend as "Ballast resistor".

Your sig line says you have a B21A engine. That (breaker points) system does use the method of shunting 12V to the coil's 15+ terminal from the starter solenoid when the engine is cranking. This method was in common use with points systems which used a 6-volt rated coil...and - oddly enough - on the B28 engine (the dreaded PRV V6) of 1982 with its electronic breakerless system. The (nominal) 12V upon starting gave an extra "hot" spark. In normal running conditions (KP II) the resistor dropped the system voltage to around 6-8V to keep the coil happy.

The B21F CI (Continuous Injection...ie: K-Jet) system and the LH (sometimes called LH-1) of that year had electronic Ignition Control Units and no resistor in the coil supply, so these would have 12V coils. Same with my 1983 with LH-2.

The OP's B23E has an ICU which takes signals from the distributor (reluctor? Hall Effect?) and computes dwell time, etc. and fires the coil accordingly. In the diagram, this is via a White wire.

The Red/White wire(s) on Terminal 1 of the coil feed the ICU/coil signals to Terminal 31b on the fuel pump relay to activate it. No signals, no fuel. Either at the coil Terminal 1 or at the fuel pump relay connector, the Red/White wire is joined to another Red/White which goes to the tachometer.

We could speculate that Volvo had a lot of left over 6V coils when they changed to electronic ignitions and used the resistor method to deplete the inventory? Perfectly workable.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (V8), 98 S90, and XC60. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

"In the 1982 Green Book wiring diagrams (p.32) for the OP's B23E engine (and the B21F-Turbo) there is no starter bypass."
My mistake. In his link, Machine Man wrote, "Around page 32". The pdf loads slowly so I just went to pg.32 of the pdf and waited till it appeared. This placed me on the page with a setup like mine. But it is actually page 30 of the manual.

Now looking at page 32 of the manual and comparing, yes, the wiring is different. There is no connection to the starter from the ballast resistor.

Art is the guru on electronics (Lucid tends to observe). On occasion when Art makes a brief retort one should take note. He repeated, "If the coil is getting hot and the ballast resistor remains cold, that is the trouble."

Look at Art's previous comment, "All of my drawings show brown wires between ballast load side and coil. Blue is 12V ignition-switched battery. Brown is the color used to connect the ballast resistor and the coil, with a brown wire from the starter terminal 16 to bypass it during cranking." and the diagram on page 32. Now compare them to R2grom's first post that states, "I have a blue wire on the single terminal end and another blue wire on the double terminal end". There's a difference in wiring.

"That (breaker points) system does use the method of shunting 12V to the coil's 15+ terminal from the starter solenoid when the engine is cranking. This method was in common use with points systems which used a 6-volt rated coil"
Huh? I thought all 240 ignition coils were 12V. Just different specs for whatever reason.

One would think that breakerless ignitions with their sensitive electronics would have 6V ignition coils also. But I have also noticed that they have resistor spark plugs. Haven't thought about why, just kept them off my B21As.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb, M46 trans, 3:31 dif, in Brampton, Ont.

Trev, I started to explain all this to Phil, beginning with the history behind the 6V to 12V evolution, but I found myself starting to sound like Art Benstein again. But you have done it just fine. Yes, the coils were 6V until the transistors totally took over, and that's just a step or two beyond the Bosch Breakerless. That is when a coil became no longer just a coil, interchangeable with most any.

The idea to check the heat produced by the ballast resistor is just simply to see if it is part of the circuit, since tracing the wires is not always easy where they disappear into vinyl sheathing and so forth. If it is part of the circuit, as it should be, it will be warm too. Easy. Can't figure out why that could not be done in two minutes instead of a week.

Tell you what, I miss having trouble with my own cars. Let's see if that statement turns out to be a jinx.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

Hi Bob ,
I can't even remember if I had a sig line on this forum. It's been years since
I signed up to post. I did a search of my account and looked for the sig line but can't find it.
------------------------

I did get this from http://www.vlvworld.com


VOLVO 240 GLT
1981-1982 (USA)
1981-1983 (Canada)

Grand Luxe Touring Identifies cars with the sport trim level produced from 1981 to 1983. Some GLT's have the turbo engine, but not all of them. Among the special features are bigger anti sway bars, 15" mags wheel, small diameter steering wheel, accessory gauges, power mirrors, all black trims on doors and inside roof. They also have most of the accessory of the GL like power windows.

Note that in the USA the non Turbo GLT have the same engine B21F has the DL and GL.

In Canada the GLT came with the more powerful B23E used also on the GL at that time.
---------------------

I'm sure that I have the B23E GLT but still not sure what wiring diagram I should follow to get it correct. The coil that was in the car when we got it was an aftermarket coil. I now have a bosch coil and it also get to hot to
touch even after a short drive.

Yeah, that was more than a little confusing. I was replying to Trev29 and his sig line with his B21A...a Canadian market car with a carburetor and points ignition. And "OP" means Original Poster...which in this thread is you.
--
Bob: Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (V8), 98 S90, and XC60. Also '77 MGB and some old motorcycles

evening Bob,
thanks for the info... are you looking at the same 1982 green book that
( Phil, machine man ) posted a link to a couple of messages back ???
I d/led the manual and printed out the page that you are refering to(page 32)
but I'm still not sure if it is the correct one. I still have some of the original wiring from the coil, a red and white wire and a brown wire. the red and white wire tells me that I may be closer to the turbo wiring diagram on pages 38-42
Let me know what you think

Thanks again

John I.

I'm getting more curious the more I read the posts coming in on this subject.

How did you determine what the temperature of a hot coil is?
Do you have suspicions that you are not getting enough high voltage?

To the best of my knowledge they do run rather warm under normal operating conditions.
Current is flowing through it in order to make spark.

I have never seen a specification for a temperature given for over ambient temperature anyplace. But then, I never looked!

I have only seen coils quit or leak when they were bad. It has only been twice in my life time. I should say very early on, as today coils are better than those of the sixties.
They were larger but not as big as those used in the Model A Fords. Now, they were the size of a shoe box!

It's my understanding that today's the coil have built in resistors or don't need them if the coils are made with more turns on each side or their insulation properties are better to withstand the heating.
Maybe that's why I think they only run warm or ? Hot to my touch. I'm sure there is more for me to learn in this area!


As Trev29 points out the resistor is out of circuit during cranking, because under that condition, the voltage supply drops due to the amperage draws to the starter. Some where in the neighborhood of nine volts. With the ballast resistor left in the circuit the current would drop to only one-third so two thirds under normal operation.
During normal running the coil would get up to 14.2 volts. So about one-third more current than the crank moment.

With all this thought I have a questions.

Do today cars use a ballast resistor or not?

Could the coils be exchanged out and do away with ballast resistor altogether in this case?

Seems to me that finding a coil with the same amperage draw, within the range of the ICU's switching capabilities, should not be to hard.

What do you guys think?

Phil

Hi guys!

Just bouncing around today and saw the posts.

I was wondering if this site has what he needs! http://www.volvowiringdiagrams.com/volvo/240%20Wiring%20Diagrams/TP30414-1%201982%20240%20260%20Wiring%20Diagrams.pdf
Around page 32. It has /CAN.
I saved it from somewhere?
Maybe it was off your posts Art?

It shows two blues on one end. The resistor other end goes directly onto the coil. It has brown but the last I knew electricity is color blind. (:-)

Phil

Afternoon Phil,
The link you posted is exactly what I needed. I will d/l the manual and scan
through it. It's just a matter of searching a very damaged and over spliced wire harness.

Thanks

John I.

If the coil is getting hot and the ballast resistor remains cold, that is the trouble. All of my drawings show brown wires between ballast load side and coil. Blue is 12V ignition-switched battery. Brown is the color used to connect the ballast resistor and the coil, with a brown wire from the starter terminal 16 to bypass it during cranking.

I have details on 1981 showing Canadian wiring. What docs are you using?
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

What engineers say and what they mean by it:
"Preliminary operational tests are inconclusive"
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.

Afternoon Art,
thanks for the fast reply. Is the ballast load side the brown wire?? the one from the coil with 2 connections ???
The wire harness our my GLT is so mickey mouse and full of splices that the brown wire from the coil ends up being a blue wire at the ballast resistor end. I did get a schematic printout from my mechanic for an 83 model but it doesn't look anything like the 82 GLT.

Thanks again

If the coil is getting hot and the ballast resistor remains cold, that is the trouble.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

What engineers say and what they mean by it:
"Not well defined."
Nobody has thought about it.