Ballast wire burned out.

Hi,
Today, for some reason the ballast wire supplying the coil with a lower voltage burned out.  I am going to check for shorts. 

Anyway, it appears this resistive wire is fairly hard to get hold of. I called a breaker, but he would only supply me with a whole loom. 

So I see a few options-
1. Install an in line resistor in a new length of wire,  so the coil only gets 8-9v. Can I just use a normal resistor? 
2. Get a ballast resistor. 
3. Get a 12v performance coil like the pertronix flamethrower,  to go with my ignitor electronic ignition unit. 

I would ike to go for option 1, but unsure if it would work? 
Cheers
Rob

electronic ignition would be my choice, but you need to make sure the coil you choose is compatible with your chosen system. some work with the oem coil, some require a different coil your kit supplier should be able to advise.

what engien is it, early with 8 bolts on rocker cover, or later one with 3?

Sorry I already have leccy ignition,  8 bolt rocker cover (not standard engine tho,  used to be 1.1) 

Want to get this thing going as it is sitting in a friends driveway a couple of miles from home,  so I am picking up a ballast resistor for a tenner from mill auto today.  Will let you know how it goes. 

hmm double check the system is designed to work with a points ignition coil then, if not that could be why it packed in!

Yeh,  I might ring up pertronix later and ask them. Not good with electrics though! 

worst case i might have a resistor wire somewhere but i think you could just fit a resistor instead, im sure older dubs were like that?

Pulled the loom out today. Replaced any badly burned wires, heatshrinked any mildly singed wires. Used some corregated loom stuff to tidy it up. I got the ballast resistor from mill auto today, along with some thicker wire to replace the old ballast wire. Couldnt find any shorts, except ones that occured after the wire melted to some other wiree.

 I will google my coil tomorrow to check if it is suitable.. Also have a blue bosch one I could try. Both coils were more than the haynes manual resistance specs, but is it right to assume this is because the coils are not oem? Maybe this drew more current through the resistor wire, causing the insulation to melt over time, then BAM, a short with one of the other wres in the loom?

I am very tempted to wire in an inline fuse in this wire. I do not feel like doing the whole loom again, took me  about 4hrs today as it was (im a slow worker!)

Will let you know how it goes tomorrow. Fingers crossed! Time I had some luck on my side…

there are loads of specs for coils, so i wouldnt be surprised that they dont match if you have aftermarket types

Yeah that's what I thought, thanks. I really hope the issue doesn't lie with the electronic ignition kit, cos they are about 100 quid! 

Found why the wire burned out, the person who installed the ignitor electric ignition decided it would be a good idea to run the positive wire over the rotor arm axle, and so it chaffed through and was earthing. Bit of heatshrink and all sorted.

Still no spark though. Got 2 issues.
1. Not quite sure I put the connectors back in the right place into the white multiplug on the loom. If anyone has a golf c and can get me pics of how the wires go into the white fusebox plug by tomorrow or , there will be something coming your way!
2.wired in the ignitor positive after the ballast resistor like the instructions say to,  when I check the ballast wire, I get around 8v when i earth it, and 4v if I connect it to the positive terminal. Whats going on here?! I get 12v to earth if I disconnect the ignitor. Really confused!