Basic questions on 2 electrical problems

[Rhinkel]

I'm putting my dads 70 280 sl back on the road,  finishing up an interrupted restoration that had the car sitting for 8 years. I have two things that don't make sense to me as I'm not good with mercedes, yet!

First, my dad had replaced the transistorized ignition with a new module. It has two ballast resistors. With the key on, both resistors get so hot you can't touch them. At all! Is that normal? Second, the fuel pump runs when the battery is hooked up and the key off. Is that normal? 

I have more electrical questions coming with so many things I'm finding disconnected. All help and comments are appreciated.

Rob

[Rhinkel]

After digging for a few hours- what a wealth of information this group brings- I've learned that low brake fluid causes the fuel pump to run and the ballast resistors should be very hot!  The calipers are being rebuilt so there's no fluid in the system. Hence my fuel pump.  Great board here! Cheers

[jeffc280sl]

Tell us more about the make of the ignition system.  I've had the Crane system and the 123 distributor system.  I don't recall the ballast resister getting hot.  I only had one resister on my system old system.

[Pinder]

I put in the Crane system and from what I recall the ballast resistors are bypassed. Maybe reason why in this case they dont get hot. The way I did this was to keep them in place and jump then so they are technically not used.