thanks martin. i will be in touch, re black forest route ... not long now .... my treat for lunch if you're up for it ? cheers, david
I don't know the original specs but it certainly does not sound "out of line." (I've got a 328. The extenders have no resistance). You will likely see what seems like a fair amount of variation between extenders but exact resistance is not critical in this application.
David; I just compared with mine. Like eulk328 - heaven knows his real name - states, exact resistor value is not critical. Assumed you measured the old, original black ones, these values are identical with mine. But on my car I have the newer red ones and these have only 1 - 2 kOhms. Enough suppression anyway and no problems since I got them 10 years ago. Does your 308 have the earlier ignition with contacts or the later electronic version ? On the earlier cars one can even convert to more reliable copper core plug wires and still has enough suppression together with the low resistor plug extenders. On the later electronic ignition, like on my car, one has to be cautious, since the amplifiers may get damaged when running without resistor wires. This is what 'specialists' told me, even though they couldn't get me a conclusive reasoning for this. But what I experienced while experimenting with copper wires is, that I got serious interferences in my radio and mobilephone. Anyway; I purchased a set of plug wires from a well known, independent UK parts dealer and tried them. After experiencing the problems I had the choice between scrapping, sending them back, or cutting them and making them fit my '72 Alfa Romeo I opted for the latter. Best Regards Martin
OK Guys, I plain English: I have an 81 GTSi, 2 Valve, FI Car. What of the three items do I need to be running on my car? Resistor Plugs, Resistor Wires, and/or Resistor Plug Extenders. Do I need one, two or all three items for the car to run correctly and without burning anything up as alluded to in this thread somewhere above? Thanx, mwr4440 P.S. Bet the Carb Car and later 4V FI Car guys would like this info in easy to understand format too as I could not figure out any of the info above.
)) Mark; you need: the correct resistor wires the correct resistor plug extenders Correct, regarding the wires, means a set special made for your car. Regarding the extenders it simply means genuine Ferrari. The wire sets are available not only through Ferrari, but also from some independent dealers like - for instance - Eurospares in the UK. Although I sometimes think, that modern, aftermarket items are sometimes better - in terms of fit; no quality discussions - than genuine F parts, in this special case it's not and a lot of trial and error did lead me back to genuine stuff. It's actually possible to obtain the genuine Cavis plug wires and manufacturing a self made set of wires out of it, but it's not much cheaper and a lot of work with hidden pitfalls. You DO NOT need resistor plugs. But although you don't need them, it gets more and more difficult to obtain plugs without resistor. So you don't need them, but if you use them, they do no harm. Best Regards Martin
Martin, Thanx. I have the resistor extendors (new) and I'll replace the plugs with the same plugs (and right gap) in the car now. Just got to get hold of the correct (resistor) wires. I recall the troubles you had when making your own wires sometime back. Thanx. Mark
i'm confused. if you use resistor plugs you shouldn't need additional resistance in the plug circuit since all resistances (plugs, extenders and wires) are in series. the resistance greatly reduces oscillations in the spark "signal" since the coil makes it an inductive circuit. what i don't know is how much resistance the marelli units need. i'm guessing that the resistance in resistor plugs is enough. regards, jon s
I tried this; resistor extenders, resistor plugs, wires WITHOUT resistor. And had interferences in my radio and mobilephone. Now I have resistor extenders, resistor wires and plugs without. NO interferences and I have the stock setup. Guessing about the needed resistance was too risky for me. Some electronic specialists warned me, I could damage the amplifiers. Best Regards from Germany Martin
i have the new red ones too .... and that's where the confusion arose ... the resistance between the new red ones and the old black ones (the decent ones worth saving) differs quite a lot. the later electronic version ... sufferred no problems although i've never had the (original) radio connected up ! anyhow, you chose not to comment on the most important point, regarding lunch on 27/06/08 !!! cheers, david
When I was trying to get my coil on plug conversion working the first few times it would not rev over 4k . . . the rpm signal light on the MSD DIS4 box would start blinking erratically like it was loosing signal . . .. spoke to MSD multiple times and got an RMA and even bought a back up DIS4 box . .. I switched to resistor plugs and problem solved . I found it interesting in the 308 manual that they list a resistor and non resistor plug but as someone else questioned why would you run resistor plugs with resistor wires and extenders with resistance to boot? As others have posted, my black extenders had zero resistance but I'm obviously not using them with the coil on plug.
Question: My extenders has been on my car for 7 years and it's still fine, should I expect for it to go bad anytime now or should I just replace them?
Extenders last a long time unless they crack from heat or get wet and short out......mine are quite old also......I just clean them and reseal with Ignition Sealer.....
What kind of sealer....Scotch electrical tape or a spray sealer? On my Avanti's where they cover the ignition wires from the distributor to the plug covered with polished stainless steel. Tempatures over the heads where the sparkplugs are gets pretty high and will dry out rubber wires and carbon won't last very long either. For the last 30 or 35 years we have used only silicon with stainless core wires and non resistor plugs on all our cars. To keep radio emmissions with in reason we use resistor wire from the coil to the distributor. I have never changed a wire, they are 30 to 35 years old and may go this route on the Ferrari
