coil problems?

[moparfanUSA]

I drove the car home from a show Sat night, got about a mike and the engine died. Checked for fuel going into the carb and that was fine. Checked for spark from the coil wire and did not have any. I once before found that the wire on the ballast resistor came off, but it seemed to be on ok. After letting it sit for about 10 min. Checked the spark again and we had it, so I started the car up and drove about 20 feet, died again, got it going and pulled into a parking lot with a bright light (it was nighttime) I had a date coded coil go bad before so I changed it out to a spare MSD master blaster I had and it worked fine, so this is the 2nd date coded coil that went bad...BUT, My question is, if the ballast Res. goes bad will it burn out the coil?
I checked the ballast voltage and it had 12 going in, but with both wires attached I had 3-4 volts coming out, when I disconnected the 1 wire I had 12v. I only turned on the ign switch, I did not start the car. I know that it should have 9v coming out. Do I need to start the car to measure it? If I do ave 12v coming out would that fry the coil? If the coil is cold it will work ok, but when it gets hot it shuts off and the coil itself gets hot, so is it the coil or resistor?

 

[Bolt-Action]

What year car? points or elec? (You mention condenser so I'm assuming points?)
Check your coils first using a multimeter-
To see if they check out, if its open they're bad.
Im wondering if you have something grounding out inside the dizzy, you mentioned you had no spark then you looked in the dizzy and then you had spark, almost like you moved something around. How long have your points/condenser been in?

 

[bm02tj]

you have to check the voltage running so there is a power draw with no draw there is no voltage drop

if you have a buddy try the coil in his car as test