Thanks LedheadELH: Haven't had a chance to play with the old truck yet. Last week I took the old coil down to the local NAPA store and compared the resistance values to a new unit. They were the same! Then I noticed something...

It pains me to admit my stupid mistakes but I failed to notice the scale on the multimeter said 10X - so, the 0.15 ohms is actually 1.5 ohms. If anything, a bit too high! But it seems that my coil is OK (unless it is shutting off as you explained due to overheating/getting 12 volts all the time)

Your info about the 'resistor' wire is interesting, I know nothing about that. I'll check that out once I've done to obvious stuff like cleaning and checking connections.

Appreciate your help,

Cheers