Usually, there is a ballast resistor that drops the voltage down before it gets to the coil. With that being said, a twelve volt coil can handle full voltage for a long time. I never ran a ballast resistor on the Dodge points distributors that I used to run demolition derbies with, and had no problems. Hook your twelve volt source to the positive side of the coil with a toggle switch, (to kill power) then power to the starter. That's all you need to start. It doesn't appear that Kaiser ran a Ford style external solenoid for the starter, so that will keep things simple. The following is a link to a good source of wiring diagrams; http://www.jeepsurreygala.com/?page_id=1377
The picture above was of an M38A1 that was fairly well roached out as far as the floors were concerned. The body could not be removed from the frame because there was only a small patch of metal holding the cowl to the rest of the tub. The braces were 1" square tubing, welded to flat bar stock onto the forward face of the fender well, (towards the top). I added some kickers going down to the floor riser, to keep the brace stable at the rear. There was another tab welded to the other end of the brace, but drilled a hole for mounting to the dash panel. Then there was a cross brace added about six inches from the dash to make rigid. After the driver's side floor was repaired, then I was able to remove the tub from the frame. With one good floor pan, the body was stable enough to be turned on its side, so that the passenger floor board could be cut out from underneath the tool box.
Thanks for all the help, very appreciated. I got the wiring diagram off that same site, I couldn't see that the coil ran off a ballast resistor just that it seemed to go from the coil to the voltage regulator on the instrument cluster and then through the key switch. I just saw a lot about a ballast resistor when researching how to hook up an ignition, didn't want to give it a full 12 volts if it couldn't handle it. Thanks again.
A. Google "Jeep VIN" and you will find a lot of lists. Your tag with a date gives you a "when".
B. Back in 1970, many ignition systems put 12-volts on the coil for start, then switched in a dropping resistor to run. Just to try to start it, 12 volts to coil.
Thanks again pal, I picked up a resistor for the heck of it, just not sure where to wire it in, like I said the diagram I have doesn't seem to have one.
Last edited by Ragsdale 85; 02-08-2018 at 10:12 AM.
I would have no problems running 12 volt constant to the coil. I haven't burned down a coil from voltage yet. At that time, I had two 1,000 CCA batteries in parallel, to spin over the 440. Under hood temps would be to where the headers would glow, and still never had ignition problems.
A Spicer 18 transfer case has two levers that control the operation, ( Hi - Low, 4 In-out). The Spicer 20 has one lever that operates all the functions, (2 Wheel/2Hi, 4 Hi, 4 Low). I assume that a CJ5 chassis was slid under your DJ body, so if I were to bet, you have the Spicer 20 single lever. Both are good transfer cases, but the 20 is a common upgrade for the 18.