At lot of our 40-50 year old cars have developed so much internal resistance in the wiring, that probably plenty of them can run without the ballast resistor by now.
I know my Dart had, until I starting noticing the voltage losses at connectors and old wiring.
If you want to 'check' if your coil will live without using a ballast resistor, try to feel how hot it is after a short drive.
If it's way to hot to the touch, it probably won't last very long.
Better use an infrared lasergun.
Thats just what I did using my orange box. After about 1/2 hr I shut it down and felt the coil and it was not hot at all. And of course the ign system will only put out what the setup needs to fire the plug depending on the full secondary system. Myself the Mopar ign has never let me down. I wish I had an old scope as I would like to check the reserve voltage my Mopar ign has with and without a ballast. Ron
