On my older 1980 brat I have an igniter assembly and a ballast resistor on my coil bracket. I need a newer coil assembly because my disty is electronic. My question is do I need the hitachi transistor box to go with the newer coil? What does that box do? 

Pictures.

GD

Normally I would not expect to see points-less ignition with the ballast resistor on the coil bracket. I think points ignition stopped about 1983 in our Australian market EA81. Almost suspect your 1980 is EA71 1600cc ....We refer to the ignition thing inside the distributor as the ign module , goes much where the Kettering style contact points would go. Like GD asks ..pictures might help us help you