Mystery solved. As I am in Italy at present (rebuild of an old American car is not for the faint of heart here!), I finally found an auto electrician (as here they divide the specialties) that was willing to listen and put up with my less than perfect Italian. He helped me with the 12v conversion by supplying the alternator, coil, and ballast resister.
I measured the resistance of the ballast resister this morning....0.6 ohm.
I went back to him. He asked...where did you get this ballast resister...I said from you...He says...it isn't a ballast resistor, but a radio suppression whatever. So.....now a bad coil too.
I have found a new coil here for purchase, but no ballast resistor. 'he' says that it won't hurt anything to leave the ballast resistor out of the mix. Ideas?
