ugly573600,
I'll give you my rendition. If you are still going to use the ballast resistor, the coil you purchased should indicate it has NO internal resistor.
The ballast resistor should have at least one wire feeding it FROM the ignition switch, and could have TWO wires on the coil side. One of these would be the +, or key switch power to the coil.
The second wire would probably come through the solenoid on START, and would be system voltage to power the coil during start.
Additional items might have been wired into the system "okie" style, but these would be on the ignition switch, or BEFORE resistor side of the device.
The ballast resistor will probably get warm as the truck 'runs', but shouldn't smoke, unless it had a protective factory oil or something on it.
The only things on the load, or coil side should be the wire going to the coil, and another one that will lead down to the starter solenoid.
If your truck has a stomp starter instead of a key activated starter, its starter switch should have a small post on the side this second wire on the load side of the resistor should go to.
Again, the coil will get 12 volts through one wire during start, and about 9 volts, which is the reduced voltage coming through the resistor during run.
These should not make the resistor smoke. Any additional loads on that side might make it smoke, and they should not be there.
Stuart
