I put it into gear and it dies.

Ok so before when I was checking voltage at the ballast with that rigging above, the test light only lit up in the specific spot in crank. NOW, after only unplugging the connector before the switch and plugging it back in, the ballast has power.
Specifically, 5.8v (and 5.2v at the coil) on the side with the brown and the blue on it. and 10.78v on the side with only the blue wire. and the test light lights up at both sides of the bulkhead and there is power going into the switch.
WHAT.
oh, and after I checked all that I touched the ballast resistor and it burned my fingers. i know it can get hot when just sitting in run for a long time, but is that normal?