Bypass the Resistor?

[Fred A]

Been having trouble with my '47 for a couple of years with hard starting and dieing from idle, especially when hot. It probably was a case of a few things at once going wrong. Tore down the distributor yesterday and found little wrong except the left side points fried. When I bought the car the original coil was paralleled with a replacement coil of unknown voltage rating. Perhaps the previous owner knew something was faulty. That was replaced with a Drake repop and the condenser replaced with an over priced Echlin from Napa. There has also been a parade of 94s and a 92. Several things just weren't right. When cold the car ran strong today then would not restart. With the distributor freshened up it was back to the jumpers to track down the possible trouble. Full six volts from the battey cleared up the rough running at idle and the engine would start as normal. This leaves the resistor or the switch as part of the problem. I am concerned that running on full six volts all the time would shorten point life and put more heat into the coil and condenser. Could the Drake coil really be just a 12V unit that happens to run on less? In a world of carelessly made replacements it has to be asked. Would you bypass the resistor or what? Thanks: Fred A