Slant got me stumped

... Only thing I haven't changed is the ballast...But I just can't see that being the root cause...could it?
...
It could, or the associated wiring. Easy to check. Measure from BATT- to Coil+. Should be ~8 V while running (kind of guessing). If <5 V, it definitely won't run well. Bottom line is whether you see a strong spark on a spark tester.