OK all you classic car guys, what the heck is this thing? (1 Viewer)

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On older American cars, there was a large resistor, called a Ballast resistor that even the flow of current to the ignition coil...this was typically found on the firewall (near the ignition coil).

There were a series of capacitors for noise suppression, usually about three. Since the older radios were most often AM radios (and tube-type before 1963), they would pick up anything the remotely resembled background noise. The Delco caps were a body-grounding design, found at the generator/alternator, the voltage regulator, the ignition coil, the back of the AM radio and occasionally mounted the the back of the instrument cluster, usually at the Amp gauge. I don't recall the Delco stock number, but they were much smaller than the mystery coil pictured. These Delco caps were about 3/4" in diameter, had a tab attached to thier steel body that would allow them to be screwed down, and had a 3 or 4 inch pigtail of 18 gauge wire with an offset brass #10 forked terminal on the end.
 
i grew up in an auto parts store and dont remember anything resembling that! i am thinking a heat sink...or a noise supression resistor...to keep engine ( spark plug ) and generator sounds from being heard on the radio. ballast resistors were mostly a ceramic block...which got pretty hot. it could be a part of a solenoid ( electro magnet ) that operated something. i know a couple people that restore old cars. if i run into one of them maybe they will know for sure.
 
Ballast were not that big, i'm thinking canister coil,maybe he was anal and had a spare one mounted. I would have a spare distributer cap,rotor and points thrown in my trunk because the igniton systems back then were not that great. Why there's a bolt thru it, I have no clue.
 
There was actually a bolt on both ends that mounted it to the chassis. Not sure if the hole wen all the way through the core asI did not look.
No one at the car show knew exactly what it was either.
 
Previous owner:
"Hey Bill, I'm gonna leave this thing in the engine compartment, they'll be scratching their heads for years over it...chuckle"
 
My girlfriend, who's clever, says its the interior of a starter solenoid, she looked at the schematic and it is indeed, located near the radiator. It's missing its external covering.
 
Should have 3 connections then. 2 large ones (from battery and to starter motor) and a lighter one from the ignition switch.
Steve
 
mjb, reminds me of a prank UAW workers used to play. They'd hang a bolt by a wire somewhere in a deep enclosed interior space. Would drive 'em nuts trying to find that elusive rattle
 
Heha :thumbright:
At my old job, the popular thing was to put a penny coin in the hub cap (rear wheel) of someone's car. Of course, when they would stop it was impossible to trace where the noise was coming from. We did dreadful things to unsuspecting new employee's :p
 
I was a UAW worker at Tarrytown, N.Y. for about a year in the late 70's.

At that time, in that plant, they were pushing things so hard, you hardly had the time to wipe the sweat off your face. Nobody there had the time to pull any jokes.
 
Tyrodtom, Can't verify the story, it was told to me by a mechanic many years ago. Their dealership had sold the new car, caddy, as I recall. The customer had returned the car once a week for months complaining about the rattle. Eventually they found the bolt/string in the rear quarter panel
 
Later on when working at a dealership, I traced a rattle in a brand new Monte Carlo to a empty 5th bottle left inside a qtr. panel.

I've heard the bolt on a string story several times, maybe it actually happened, or it may be just one of those urban rumors.

But from my own experience working on a production line, at that time, and at that factory, nobody could have found the spare time to pull such a stunt.
 
That could be a voltage drop for a 6v two-way radio. The cops used the old radios in the newer 12v cars for a while.
 
Tons of artificial things being done to the car back in the day appear to be more modern, a little gimmick to increase the car manufacturers to sell more cars.
 

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