Bad ECU from the factory!!?

Mine wasn't starting the other day after I had the distributor out and was placing new parts in it. It turned out to be that the ballast resistor on the firewall broke. The coil was only getting power on the start position but not when the key was at the "on" position. The timing was also off making it hard to start. To narrow it down we connected a long wire to the coil directly from the battery and the car started and ran.