charging issues
Very unlikely. Typical ignition switch problems are intermittent connections and opens... not shorts that draw current.
Please read my post very carefully, you have to understand how this works
HOW IT WORKS
A big voltage drop in the ignition harness circuit works like this:
The regulator senses the "real" battery voltage AS SUPPLIED by the defective harnes
THIS IS WHY when you troubleshoot for a voltage drop harness you MUST do this with the engine NOT running.
Let's say you have a 1 volt drop in the harness. This means that with the engine off, and the voltage measured at the alternator field, or at the regulator IGN terminal, there is a ONE VOLT difference between the battery and the IGN terminal.
This ONE VOLT drop is ADDED to the regulator set point, which SHOULD be around 14 volts.
So when the car is RUNNING the regulator SENSES this low voltage at it's IGN terminal and THINKS that the battery is LOW, so it ramps up the charging voltage until it SEES 14V BETWEEN THE REGULATOR CASE and the REGULATOR IGN terminal. ----BUT---because the regulator is isolated from the battery by this amount of drop, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN that 14V working through this drop, it must ramp up the voltage to obtain that amount, and the battery which is BEFORE it goes through the defect in the IGN circuit, is now OVER voltage by the amount of the drop.
FURTHERMORE if the regulator is NOT actually grounded electrically to the battery, THIS difference of potential (voltage) IS FURTHER added to the charging voltage. So if, say, there is another 1/2 volt lost in the ground circuit, NOW you have ONE AND A HALF volts added to the regulator's "normal" 14V!!!!
The hot ballast in this case is NOT the sign of a short. Merely the charging voltage is way WAY too high, and so the ballast is running that much hotter because there is much more current going through it, caused by the high charging voltage
DO NOT RUN THE CAR this way. You are liable to ruin electrical items, including light bulbs, head lamps, or electronic components in the car.