Always make sure you carry an extra ballast resister and ignition control unit in your car! Driving to work yesterday, I just got on the express lanes under the convention center in Seattle. Humming along about 65 then.......nothing. Found a place to coast over to, turned flashers on, sat going through what it could be. Got out...fuel filter full and carb had a nice shot of fuel, so elinated fuel. Coil was only warm to the touch. So I replaced resister and tried to start it, not it. Replaced the control unit and BAM! Engine shook a little from all the extra fuel, then settled down to a nice even idle. So, if you don't want to be on the side of the freeway or middle of an intersection for long, toss an extra control unit in your trunk (the car that is).

Yep. Always carry a spare or two.

In my 30 years of driving old mopars, I have never had a ballast resistor nor a control box go out.

I have lost ground to the control box, failed coils, fouled spark plugs, shorted out points, condensers that stopped condensing, arcing plug wires and dead alternators.

Arcing plug wires make for a nice light show in the dark, dead alternators can make for interesting night time driving. Hmm, do I want an engine that runs or headlights. Pick one...

Guess you didn't drive them far enough. Everyone I have owned has suffered at least one ballast failure, and always at the most inopportune time

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Go HEI
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Mmmmm, no.

and an extra oil filter and some oil

Really, lets see. In the past 30 years i have had a least 10 of these vehicles. For example:

1972 Dodge 1/2 ton, drove it for 10 years with a ballast resister that was basically broken in half. Stopped driving the truck when the frame broke, it must have had over 250,000 miles on it. At one point the OE steel head gasket rusted thru, block seal fixed the problem. Never did change the ballast resister thou. As far as I know, it came from the factory.

1964 Dodge Dart GT, drove it for 10 years with a questionable ballast resister, never had a problem. Stopped driving the car when it rusted into the ground.

1965 Dodge Dart, used the same ballast resister when I swapped the engine from the '64. Still driving it, going on 5 years now...

I always carry a spare ballast, pickup, ECU, coil, VR, fuses, wire and tools - and in 25 years my car needed the spare ballast once and the ECU once - a little less often than I needed my spare tire. My new Mopar orange box died suddenly with only 2000 miles on it - a rather gooey postmortem showed only that the main transistor was still OK.

At shows, though, I've helped out other Moparists out with coils, ECUs, ballasts, and VRs that quit on them for no obvious reason after a mere 30+ years.

i keep a spare balalst resistor in both of my slant six vechiles, plus extra oil, brake fluid, ATF in my dart trunk, PWR steering fluid in my truck & jumper cables in both of them. it's good to be prepared because if your not needing it, then another sl6 owner may need some roadside assistance.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project