mallory unilite system

[joe dirt]

new to me truck with 383 stroker has a unilite distributor and coil, ive been reading where you need to have a ballast inline, but mine does not have a ballast, previous owner said its been like this for years, can this hurt things?

reason for me looking into this is because every once in a while after I first start the truck it will shut off almost like the key was turned off, but it will fire back up and be just fine

also noticed the tach seems to work fine under 2k rpms...but does not want to go much above that, and does not seem that accurate even at those lower rpms