What is minimum electrical required to start my car?

AnswerBook said

tested(from info collected from here) dual ballast resistor - ok
not sure how to do that... unhook distributor wire at the connection, got it, there is two wires to it yup... which side do i put red cable from tester into and which one do i put the black wire from tester into... what position on tester? - then crank car - car wont crank.. so I have to remove distributor? sorry kinda lost

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Lets take one step at a time. Help us out so we can picture what you have and the situation.
If it doesn't crank.
The starter gets its power from the battery when two things happen.
1. the starter relay gets a little bit of power from the keyed switch in start position. This closes the relay sending current to the solenoid on the starter.
2. The solenoid (big electromagnet) shoves the gear back to mesh with the matching teeth on the flywheel or torqueconverters and closes an internal switch that powers the battery spin the starter.

If it does crank. Get an in-line spark plug tester (like $5) to literaly watch and see if there is spark or not. No reason to chase lack of spark if its sparking.