Are there any pros and cons to having one or not?
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Are there any pros and cons to having one or not?
I believe you must have one. Some coils have one built in, so you don't need the external one.
I had a coil go bad one time- it had a built in resistor. The auto parts store gave me one without a built in resister.
To make a long story short, the coil would work just long enough to get the boat off the trailer, and into the middle of the river (in the current) and quit. The coil will get very hot...
http://www.goldenplasma.f2s.com/foru...es/happy25.gif
I do remember the guy that had my boat before me just took it off, I'm guess the ignition coil that's on there has one?? I was able to run this boat for a while in the harbor just to get familiarized with it I was out there for over an hour.
It is going to depend on what ignition you have. If you have points you must have a resistor either in the coil or an external one. Most electronic ignitions use a full 12 volts, however some of the after market units like Mallory Unilite, etc. still require a resistor. Check with ignition manufacturere to be sure.