Why would someone bypass the ignition resistor?

Also I wired up the Ammeter and it seems to indicate a negative charge when I turn on the ignition and the headlights, But does not seem to post much of a positive charge even at full throttle. The battery was almost fully charged so I have a suspicion that that may have something to do with it.

Any help and or wiring tips are appreciated. I've already learned so much from this site.
Thanks,
Scott

Heres the deal; Ford designed their 6-volt squarecan frontmount ignition coil to run on; would you believe 3-volts? Thats right, 3-volts!!! isn't that amazing? And Ford used a temperature sensitive varible resistor called a "ballast resistor" to provide 3-volts to run the coil. It changes its resistance depending upon its internal temperature. When COLD, it has less resistance and so you gitt MORE VOLTS to run the ignition coil ...but... too many volts for too LONG a time will melt yer ignition coils insulative tarrs and short-out some coil windings and make LESS SPARKIES.

So innnna'bout 2-minutes, the internal temperature of the "infamous ballast resistor" heats up and INCREASES the resistance and reduces the volts to the coil and now you have long-life coil that doesn't overheat and melt the insulative tarrs causing weak sparkies.

BUT.....There are too many electrically challenged shadetree mechanics that figger this way: my tractor is hard to start ...because... it has weak sparkies ...therefore... I need hottter sparkies. That dumb "infamous ballast resistor" is cuttin' down my sparkies; just when I need MORE SPARKIES. So the ballast resistor gitts by-passed. Yeah, it works for about 2-hrs before the insulative tarr melts and the tractor quits running. ...but wait... The coil cools off overnite and solidifies the insulative tarrs and vola' hot sparkies innnna cold morning start. This will work for about 1-hr before the tarrs melts again.

Bottom line, remember the 6-volt MANTRA: "keep'em clean, bright, and tight". And use yer "infamous ballast resistor" for long points and coil life..... ....Dell, yer self-appointed sparkie-meister

The 8N was bought in pieces and I just finished assembling it...it fied up a couple of times, but nowe there is spark issues. New cap,rotor, pints,condenser, plugs...will a bad coil behave like this???

Think about it. Yer 8N's genny can only output about 7.4 volts, which is what it takes to charge a 6-volt battery. An 8-volt battery needs about 9.5-volts to charge-itt. Yer runnin' 'round on crippled 8-volt battery.

I don't care what they tell you at the farm-store, just 'cuz some tractors can charge 8-volt batterys, not all can. It depends upon the genny design and yer 3-terminal 8N genny can't charge an 8-volt battery. Period!!!

Intermittant sparkies is usually a cause of loose connections. It takes about 1-hr for a bad ignition coil to go bad. Since you claim you've been able to occasionally start yer engine, it ain't chur coil.

As for the Chrysler resistor vs yer "infamous ballast resistor", use eather one or the other NOT BOTH. Understand? The Chrysler is slightly higher resistance which would be appropriate for 8-volts. But as I said; yer 8N's genny can't fully charge an 8-volt battery.

Many times an 8-volt battery is used as a band-aide for a weak and worn low compression engine. Just as the popular conversion to 12-volts. It just spins the engine faster for higher dynamic compression and thus you think you've fixxed yer engine hard-too-start problem. FOOL!!!..... .respectfully, Dell

Yeah, I didn't think that the 8 volt would be an upgrade either...

At any rate, I've checked out the wiring and I don't see any apparent issues. With the plugs sitting out of the engine, I'll get good spark at all of the plugs, but very randomly...sometimes I will get the spark at the same plug twice in a row (with no spark at the others) but then the others may light up in no defined pattern. Then again, sometimes there is no sign of spark. What am I missing???

What happens is, the tar inside the coil is supposed to insulated the windings, but it will short out inside if it gets hot and the tar melts. When the coil cools down and the tar solidifies again, it may recover. Eventually, the coil will completely short out and will not work even when its cool.

If your coil is still sparking along and you havent had any trouble it's probably still ok.

I am not too sure if those resistors go bad or not or how to diagnose it. Dell will know.

It DID seem to help cold weather starting some. Later, I coverted it to 12 Volts, and removed the switch.

Of course, applying full buttery voltage to the coil while starting (as was common with many other machines with breaker point ignition) could be made automatic by the use of a small relay operated by the voltage to the starter.