First start: no spark, no joy

[SlayerBill]

Hi all!
We took our car off the jack stands today and tried firing it up for the first time, but it wouldn't start. Narrowed it down to no spark from the coil.
Now previously, we had the coil/tach wire attached with the orange wire labeled "coil" which was incorrect. In fact, I burnt the tips of my fingers on the coil it got so hot! It wasn't even running either. I'm thinking the coil is shot, so Dad will pickup a new one tomorrow to test.
The details: x302 from Ford racing, Ron Francis roadster harness, JEGS Performance Products #555-40100 High Energy Coil, JEGS Performance Products #555-40055 SSR Billet Distributor
Anyway, we have a few questions:
First, is this the correct wiring for our setup?
nospark.jpg
(purple=coil/tach, orange=coil, black=ground)
Second, is a ballast resistor necessary and if so, is my poorly drawn schematic correct?
We are not using a external ignition box of any sort. As far as I know, this isn't necessary?
Checked all fuses, plenty of fuel in the carb, choke gets hot, inertia switch is ok and heavy duty ground straps all around. The starter works fine too and we *should* be very close to the happy zone for the distributor.
If the new coil works, I'll let you all know, but any other ideas?
Thanks in advance!

[Jon]

Are you running a ground to the negative side of the coil? If you are, it will never run. Take the ground off. I looked up the instructions for that model distributor and it seems that you would want to bypass the resistor and run full voltage to the positive side of the coil. Run the black wire from the distributor to the negative side of the coil, the orange wire and full 12v to the positive side of the coil.

[SlayerBill]

Ah ok, thanks! We will try this later and report back.
Just in case, we have a new coil on the way anyway.

[SlayerBill]

Are you running a ground to the negative side of the coil? If you are, it will never run. Take the ground off. I looked up the instructions for that model distributor and it seems that you would want to bypass the resistor and run full voltage to the positive side of the coil. Run the black wire from the distributor to the negative side of the coil, the orange wire and full 12v to the positive side of the coil.

I owe you a ride and a beer, should you ever find yourself in Tucson! That did it! We did have a ground running to the negative side of the coil.
Here is another poorly drawn diagram with the correct wiring:
spark.jpg
Thanks again and lesson learned...don't try to over engineer anything next time!

[Jon]

No problem, glad I could help.

Jon