Coil question

I pulled the distributor to have it checked and found the module to be bad. Even though it worked and the car ran the module was creating some weird acitvity on the bench test. I replaced the module, installed a new coil using exact same wiring configuration I had when the car was running. Now I cant even get the car to start up. I thought that I may have installed distributor 180 degrees off but thats not the case. All I can get is a backfire. I dont know where to go from here. The only thing that I have not replaced is the ballast resistor. It only has 500 miles on it. If the module and coil were fried could the ballast be fried also??? and would that cause the car not to start at all???