Putting 12V points ignition in my '49 Chevy (235)] Had a 12V coil laying around clearly marked 'use with external resistor' Bought a NAPA (Eichlin) resistor rated for 1.6 ohms - normal-looking ceramic thing with a coiled wire Wired it up - - - 12.82 volts in - 12.82 volts out of resistor Car starts and runs fine......but coil gets hot (gee - I wonder why....?) Why no voltage drop? Bad resistor? 1.6 ohms not right?
If your points were open when you checked your voltage - the voltage out will be the same as the voltage in. Make sure your points are closed, then check voltages.
Still won't tell you the real story of what your resistor is doing. I think the best way to check this would be to pop your distributor cap off, turn the engine over by hand until the points are closed, then slip a thin piece of plastic or other insulation between the points - then hook your meter up to the coil side of the resistor, turn the key on, pull the insulator out and read the voltage (quickly or things will tend to get hot) then slip the insulator back between the points, and then walk around and turn the key off.
You could just jumper the distributer lead to ground and check the voltage at the coil on the other side.
What the others are trying to tell you is there has to be a load on a circuit before you will read a voltage drop. With no load( current) , the voltage will always be the same on both sides of a resistor.
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