I offer this opinion here even though many of you will not agree with it.
You have a 12volt system, but the charging voltage will be around 14.0 volts. A stock resister wire is 1.4 or 1.8 ohms (if I remember correctly) depending on if it's for a 6 or V8. It will drop the voltage 1-2 volts. This will still give you 12 volts at the distributor and draw only slightly above 1 Amp. Get out your voltmeter, do the math and you'll see that this is correct.
A popular misconception is that you have to use 10-12 gauge wire with a 20 amp fuse. Your stock dash radio uses more current than a HEI. It has a 5 Amp fuse and is wired with 16 gauge.
Your resister wire is the cloth covered wire that goes from the distributor to the firewall bulkhead connector. Just crimp(it won't solder) a new connector on the end and plug it into the HEI. You'll both be very happy.
When I first put the HEI in my 292, I bypassed the resister. The third time I started the truck, the HEI module burned out.
I reconnected the stock ballast resister wire and it's worked just fine for years.
The "nay" sayers will want to tell you that you won't get as hot a spark. Bunk! Nay sayers don't even say nay.
