OK, round two with the '75 ignition.

Ordered the diode thingy from IPD and installed today as follows with the help of Shayne's faxed diagram.

-Blue from black box to one end of ballast resistor to 10amp fuse to fusebox

-IPD diode from starter to other end of ballast resistor.

-White to coil

-Black to ground

And this worked, was able to set timing and let it run while I gathered up the tools. Idled more evenly and timing no longer jumped.

Went to close the hood and as I was closing saw that the hinge was going to hit my ballast resistor (had it mounted next to the relays in the engine bay) but not in time to stop the hinge from smacking the terminal off the resistor. Car still running.

When I raised the hood the loose terminal with the blue wires hit the mounting bracket for the ballast resistor causing a short and the car stopped running. I'm a little pissed at this point. Pulled the 10 amp fuse and it had blown.

Replaced the fuse, resoldered the terminal on the resistor and nothing once again. Pulled coil wire from distributor and checked for spark and it is once again giving spark in the "run" position but not in the "cranking" mode. Also when I reinstalled the coil wire I could crank for about ten seconds and when I disengaged the starter and went back to "run" position I would get a hint of firing in the combustion chambers.

Pretty frustrating, I'm hoping I have only killed the diode. If that is even possible. Don't know much about electricity.

I'm hoping someone knows the value of this diode so I can run to Radio Shack and try a fresh setup. If not, I'll be ordering from IPD. Would like to avoid the wait to find out how much damage was caused by the short. Hoping the black box, etc survived.

So thanks in advance if anyone knows this info.

-Mario E.