engine and drivetrain Wiring Help -- long

[themelch3]

I have a '74 02 that I've had for almost two years. Recently, I've been trying to correct a slight 'misfiring' at low rpms. Lot's of posts on this...all very helpful.

But while I've been doing this, I found a weird wiring issue. I have red coil hooked up to an old Allison ignition. I hadn't been using an external resistor. But, it did have the resistor wire in place, which started to get old and cracked. So I replaced and put in place an external resistor. Good so far.

But while doing this, I found that the wire from the solenoid to the coil wasn't connected. So I connected it. Oddly enough, when i connect this wire to the coil, the engine will fire but won't stay running. But if I disconnect and start without it, car runs. So it seems that the wire leading back to the solenoid is pulling the current off the + side of the coil and grounding out. What should I look for? There must be something miswired on the solenoid right?

One other thing, running the external resistor (1.2 ohm), my voltage drops from about 13 or so at the front of the resistro to about 9 on the other side. Is this too big a drop and indicative of another problem in the wiring?

Thanks.