upgrading regulator

oldmusclelover said

a second question if you don't mind: am I correct at reading my wiring diagram for the ballast resistor as- the brown wire from ignition switch gives the full 12 volts to the coil for starting purpose only, then when the car is running and key goes to the run position the alternator takes over and the ballast resistor drops the voltage to 8 for the coil? if so, and again if I am reading correctly, shouldn't the electronic ignition wire go to the side of the ballast resistor with the blue wire from the regulator so it's getting power from the 12 volt side, and not the drop to 8 volts?
thanks again for your help

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Yes, the wire going direct to the ECU should be on the "key" side of the ballast. Essentially, the wiring/ ballast / coil is UNCHANGED. The only change to the coil wiring is essentially you unhook the points, and replace the coil NEG terminal with the (appropriate) wire going to the coil NEG. In other words, the ignition box switches the coil on/ off just exactly like points did.

You likely have a "4 wire" ECU as the older 5 wire would only be old junk OEM, mostly. so you only have 4 wires plus ground

Ground, the ECU must MUST be grounded. Scrape it and the firewall clean/ bare, use star lock washers

Two wires go to the distributor pickup

One goes to coil NEG

The last one goes to the "key" (high v) side of the ballast.