[TR] and a bad coil?

[Jim Muller]

So yesterday I (finally) got to put new ignition stuff into the GT6, 
points, condensor, rotor button and dizzy cap.  The new condensor 
didn't fit too well.  It was bigger than the previous and I had to 
bend the bracket a bit so it wouldn't rub on the cam.  No problem...  
And today I put in new plug wires.

The car runs better, idles smoothly, revs nicely up to about 3000rpm, 
then starts missing again.  At that point I get better acceleration 
by upshifting just to keep the rev's down.  Bring the rev's down and 
it pulls smartly, evenly.  Bummer.  Something still ain't right.

Question is, what?

The next free minute I get, probably on Saturday, I'm going to pull 
the floats out of the carbs (a pair of SUs), and maybe check the fule 
pump delivery, but I don't expect to find much.  It feels 'lectrical, 
not fuel-ical, err, I mean, fule-ical.

So one possibility is, could it be the coil?  It seems to be worse 
after I've been driving for some minutes, though I wouldn't swear to 
that under oath.  The coil is a Lucas Sport, was on there when I 
bought the car about 7 years ago.  I suppose there might be a ballast 
wire somewhere but I'm not sure.  What are the usual symptoms when a 
coil fails?

Query:  A ballast wire or ballast resistor is ony about 5-10 Ohms, 
right?  Just wonder what I should look for if I put a meter on it.  
And is there any real advantage of one coil over another?  I can't 
see why there should be.  That might matter if I put on a new coil.

Tanks,

Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com