Should there be a ballast resistor on the coil?

('85 Dodge ram 150, 318 engine, 2 bbl holley carb)

I changed out the coil on my truck last weekend, didn't notice a ballast resistor anywhere around the coil.

I alaways thought Mopars used ballast resistors?

The ballast resistor is on ther firewall not the coil. Good sized white ceramic block.

Well, NO WONDER I didn't see it by the coil!

the small BR looking doodad mounted by the coil is the choke heater relay/BR something or other.. for the choke pull off.

the BR is on the firewall over by the steering colum.

sometimes a coil will have a radio noise superssion condenser looking thing wired on with the coil wires.

unless you need to pass emissions test,i would swap on a small 4-v carb and do the points dist with a pertronix points conversion with one of their flamethrowwer 40,000 volt coils.

then by-pass the BR for full 12 volts to coil.

best thing I did on my 85 stepside. i do it on all my mopars. striped all the wire not need from the 88-440 truck.

got rid of all this mess under hood.

this looks much cleaner and never a problem after it is converted to a pertronix set up.

I just set up a mallory mech duel point dist with a pertronix conversion for the 440 engine.

White thing to the passenger side of the brake booster.

stumpy,has that BR been placed in that spot or was it there stock?

mine is over by the steer colum. but seems I recall them in different spots.

I worked on one that had the VR by the BATT on the fender not the firewall.

It's my first 85 so I'm not sure but it looked stock other than the replaced wires.

Is there anyway to do away with the ballast resistor?

Pertronix or some other replacement distributor and coil setup

I found the ballast resistor on my '85 Ram.

It's located on the firewall, on the extreme left (driver's side), between the steering collum and the front fender.

It was staring at me the whole time.

Why are there some ballast resistors with 4 terminals?

What are the other 2 terminals used for??