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(That was me Terry). Points arcing was the primary reason for the reduced voltage. The other reason was that original coils were designed to run on the lower current draw so they would not fail to overheat. Even modern electronic ignition ran resistance wire for this reason (Ford Dura spark and Chrysler with the dual resistor block, they run the same oil filled coil with a fairly high current). My bird is a great example of how high the current can get. If I leave the main ignition on without starting it my coil will overheat in about 15 minutes and will not start until I cool it down a bit (and if you touch it it gets pretty hot). Pertronics leaves it grounded in a no run situation. If I ran full voltage to it I suspect I would have burned it up by now. I do have an accel flame thrower coil (fancy name for "gee...its chrome") but it really doesn't run any better or look any different on an ocilliscope than a stock coil. Granted you don't leave the key on that long usually but I do when working on it sometimes. About every oil filled standard coil I have ever bought will say on the coil that they must be used with an external resistor. Makes me wonder what Pertronics is thinking. If you keep the current down across the firing transistor it should run cooler and last longer. Look at all the trouble Ford got into with their TFI modules mounted in the distributor due to heat failure and those were also run with resistance wire. That being said I think Pertronics makes a hell of a product. I have never seen one go bad. I do keep a spare in the trunk as I do a lot of highway driving but doubt if I will ever need it.
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