Need Some Ballast Resistor Help
 

In addition to making an 87 300D a daily driver. I am finishing a frame off restoration of a 62 Olds Starfire. I rebuilt the original wiring harness and the factory installed resistor wire in the wire from the ignition switch to the + side of the coil was missing. I installed what was supposed to be a 1.6 ohm ballast resistor in the wire ahead of the coil. While working on the rear window switches I had the key on for 3 or 4 minutes at a time. After I got the windows working I looked under the hood. The ballast resistor was glowing red hot and had broken the ceramic housing. I removed the ballast resistor and checked the ohms, 2.3, do you think the resistor overheated because the ohm value was higher than the required 1.6 ohms or is something else wrong?

That will happen when the points are closed in the distributor and the engine isn't running. The closed points are a short to ground for the powered up coil. If you are going to work on that car with the key on then you need to rotate the engine to where the points are open or disconnect the hot lead from the coil.

I'd replace the resistor, after cooking it, it is ripe for intermittent failure.