[Leland Pate]

Alright guys,
My brother and I are trying to get my father's old '63 Studebaker Hawk running and have run into a puzzling problem. We need your help so please let the suggestions fly.

This should be a classic ignition troubleshoot problem but I am kind of stumped right now.

We get cranking and we get fuel but no spark to the plugs. I checked for spark at the coil and got nothing.

We guessed the coil was bad and swapped it for a new unit. ...still nothing. So, we checked for twelve volts to the positive cable and "I think" we're getting voltage. I used a known ground for the opposite cable to the coil so I know we have a solid ground connection.

So, apparantly, we are not getting sufficient voltage into the coil for reasons unknown. With my voltmeter, I am getting 12v from the positive lead with the key in the "on" position but it flutters around while cranking and it's hard for me to figure out what we're getting under cranking conditions because of the voltmeter display. So, does anyone have any ideas what could be the likely culprit in this scenario?

Another thing... The new coil has "external resistor required" stamped on the coil body. This also throws another question into the mix... do ignition coils need an inline resistor leading to the positive terminal? Could the old one have failed? The old positive lead wire has something that looks like it may be an inline resistor covered with plastic where it attaches to the ignition coil. The reason I ask is that I am contemplating finding another switched power source to use as the hot wire to the coil. Just to see if this is truely our problem.
I love my father but he really did quite the "backyard" number on the wiring on this car. It was his first car and by the looks of much of the wiring you can tell the work was done in his "JB Weld" days.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lee