You said you put a "12V coil" in place and that you bypassed the ballast resistor. Doing both of those things together is fine. Implementing those changes you have converted your ballast ignition system to a standard ignition system.
I suspect what happened is your ballast resistor burned out first so you bypassed it. Shortly afterward the original ballast coil failed because the ballast resistor was bypassed (too much current). Then you fit the standard (12V) coil. The 12V coil does not need or use the ballast resistor (which you bypassed) so the coil change completed the transition to a "standard ignition system".
Regardless of when the coil failed years ago,
it makes perfect sense that the way your car is now you are not having problems. It is not luck.
Doug L.
--Previous Message--
: I purchased the coil at a NAPA store. It
: was a 12 Volt of course and I connected
: it directly to my ignition switch. I
: haven't had a problem in 20 years of
: daily driving. I don't remember what
: broke first. Maybe I'm just lucky.
:
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