A couple of things jump out here. The "R" lug on the starter is the start circuit for the engine. It provides full battery voltage to the coil for starting only. The ballast resistor voltage should come from the run circuit of you ignition switch. These two circuits come together at the '+' side of your coil. The resistors job is to drop the battery voltage to around 9 volts or so for the coil when the engine is running. Both the coil and ballast do get hot. Resistors fail in the open position so it's not bad.
Don't know if you 'cooked' your coil. If not and want things to calm things down a bit then change the value of the ballast resistor. They make them with different values. A larger resistance value resistor will limit the amount of current the coil sees. Use an ohm meter to determine the present value of the resistor if it's not printed on the side. Note: heat sinking the resistor is not a bad idea.
Also, the ballast resistor feed side (other end from coil) does not go to "R" and "R" is not a ground. "R" should be hot only in the start position of the ignition switch and the car in park or neutral, if an automatic.

Last edited by beltfed; 01/22/2017 12:58 PM.
Six volt guy living in a twelve volt world