Ignition Coil question - Ballast or Non-Ballast

Does anyone know definitively what type of ignition coil is fitted on my Mk1, or at least how to tell which should be.  I have a 1985 1.6 Cabriolet which has the hall sender type dizzy with the ignition amp in the scuttle.  I want to throw a high output "Sport" coil on the car, something like a Bosch Blue, Lucas Sport or Petronix Flamethrower.  What I need to know is, is the car supposed to have a coil with a ballast resister built in or not?  Is anyone able to say definitively what spec coil I ought to order?

Thanks in advance,
Steve 

Have a look at the current setup, do you see a separate ballast resistor near your coil?

I was under the impression that no Mk1's have ballast resisters under the bonnet?

What is there now has been hacked with bits of random loom spliced in and I'm going to rewire it.  I just wanted to be sure of what spec coil I need as I understand my car is on a cross-over year.

Yeah my 1.1 had a ballast resistor, just above the coil, bolted to the coil bracket.

You could measure across your current coil? A standard coil will read 3ish ohms, and a ballast one around half of that.

Thanks Roach, I'll have a dig around in the loom.  I have a suspicion that it failed because the loom is a nightmare but it may be that the wrong coil is fitted.  It's a bit of a mess under there to be honest.

Do I measure resistance between the low tension +ve and high tension +ve terminals or between the two low tension terminals?

Thanks.

Just measure between the + and - yes.


Obviously that'll tell you what is currently fitted, but I'm not sure what is supposed to be fitted.