I just received my ballast and decided to wire it I am done and would like to know if I have done everything correctly, I will post some pics of my ballast and wiring.

Whole thing


Ground wire that should be fine bolted there, right?


Actual wiring

Everything looks good, your S51 you got looks better then the one I bought from that guy! Mine was in an awkward position in that metal cage and some of the plates on the outside of the ballast have started to peel a bit. Still works great though.

I took mine out of the metal plates but surprisingly it didn't get much lighter, the metal plates are pretty light.

I can't quite see the mogul wiring in your pics but that part is common sense, white->white black->black

wiring looks fine, assuming you connected the right ones to hot and neutral

Well I got lucky the mogul was already wired for me.

This explains the wiring a little, I just want to be really sure since I already messed up my LCD and cannot afford to mess up anything else.

com to white, 120v to black, ground to green. looks good.

What would happen if I plug it in, is it a good idea to plug it in without a bulb?

so I'm getting the feeling that you have already done this and are wondering if you fried something. don't be shy, people have done worse

Actually I really wanted to do it but I have learned my lesson , so what would happen.

So is it safe to try that or will I mess up the ballast?

how would you know if its working without a bulb??

It won't work.. you'll end up damaging the ballast. don't do it

I don't know about damaging the ballast...but it might make some clicking noises and not start.