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sometimes when im cranking and cranking and it wont fire, when i turn the key off, it will hit, if i do that a few times it will sometimes clear the plugs enough to start.



There is your problem. The wiring to the ballast resistor has 2 circuits. The blue wire which has 12 volts with the key in the run position,but in the crank position it has 0 volts. The brown wire has 12 volts in the crank position only. If you lose the brown wire feed you will have no voltage to the coil during cranking.
Doug