Dwell is what matters. It describes how long the coil charges or rises before collapse (which causes the spark in the secondary winding).
Gap is just another way to get to correct dwell. It's given as a spec because it's far more likely for the home mechanic (farmer?) to have a feeler guage than a dwell meter.
That your miss goes away when you bypass the resistor makes me think the coil is not getting enough current at that rpm to do its job. Maybe it has too low of a primary resistance?
Might get yelled at for this, but. . . bypass the resistor and drive it around for a week and see how it goes. The only potential cost to you is points burning up quicker.
Jason
