Ballast Resistors and more

[Bill <Y1TopBanana73@xxxxxxxxx>]

I got my Pertronix ignition conversion on Friday and hooked everything
up on Sunday. I hit the key, and it fired right up, no problem. I just
fired it up long enough to see that it runs, and turned is back off.

http://picasaweb.google.com/y1topbanana73/Pertronix02

The instructions say "Attach the black Ignitor wire to the negative
coil terminal. Attach the red wire to the positive coil terminal"
(picture #2 @ the above link, wiring diagram is pic 4-fig 1)

Then it says to remove the ballast resistor, basically connect all the
wires going to it together.

Then it says if you want to retain the ballast resistor, "attach the
Ignitor black wire to the negative coil terminal and attach the red
wire to the ignition side of the ballast resistor, or any 12 volt
ignition power source." (pic 4-fig 2)

So my question is...since the car runs with the black and red wires of
the Ignitor connected to their respective sides of the coil, do I
really need to connect the red wire before the ballast resistor? Will
this screw up / burn up anything if I don't? What exactly does a
ballast resistor do anyway?

Anyone else have any Pertronix experience and what I should do?

Bill M