So I looked in to this and I left the resistor wire in the circuit when I did this conversion originally. It is reading 1.6 ohms of resistance. Is the consensus to leave it in? Try without? The system is still on the stock generator. 

Thanks to everyone for the help so far. 

Just had the wife crank it while I checked voltage at the coil and it's only 5vdc when ON and 3vdc cranking. 

Well, there you have it. You have a bad/undercharged battery or too much resistance in the circuit. If your battery tests good, you might have bad connections or components in the wiring. Start checking backwards from the coil to see where the voltage increases: At the input side of the resistor? At the ignition switch? 

I agree, make sure the battery is fully charged and then check battery voltage without a load and then while cranking.  If it drops under 9v, it's time to replace the battery.

Re the resistor, it does look like the instructions say it can be left out with the components you are using.  The wire being described as a resistance wire in the diagram is probably left in by mistake, as Gene pointed out. If you want no confusion, contact Accel for clarification.

I did have a bad battery cause this same situation with my ignition.  The battery was good enough to turn the engine but voltage dropped low enough that the ignition did not work.


Lawrenceville, GA

Mac,
The factory wiring by-passes the ballast resistor when cranking the engine to give the ignition a boost to help compensate for the voltage drop from the starter motor. It does this with a terminal on the starter solenoid that connects battery voltage directly to the pos. on the coil. Did you alter this wiring ?

I had a similar problem on a 55 Thunderbird.  It left me stranded a couple of times and was hard to impossible to start.  After some testing, I found that the hot ignition wire was loose on the back of the switch.  A simple tightening of the nut and problem solved.  

On the start side of the solenoid I have around 9v while cranking. On the "run" side of the solenoid I have 6-7 volts. Battery positive to negative is 12.4. Did not improve while jumping the battery from my daily. I have a good ground at the breaker plate to engine block, good from engine block to battery. I don't have continuity from the negative on the coil to the distributor housing, not sure if that's right or not. Otherwise the wiring passes all of the tests in my 64 shop manual for proving out the primary ignition circuit. 

I'm a little unclear on your cranking voltage, though measured directly across the battery posts 9.6 volts is considered a defective battery. There is a temperature correction factor to be applied, but a strong healthy battery should maintain well north of 11 volts while cranking.

The "I" Terminal should have very close to 12 Volts. This Wire goes to the + Side of Coil for starting. You only have 6-7 Volts apparently. Not enough to start the Motor. Are You using a good load tested Battery? Under cranking load it should still provide 12 Volts to "I" Terminal. If the Battery is good then maybe the Solenoid is the Problem.. Battery Voltage of 12.4 is very low for a fully charged Battery. 13-13.5 is more realistic.

  

Every one that's trouble shot automotive electrical problems develop their own methods that work for them but are confusing to others. To level the playing field and start from ground zero I have to agree with Gene's previous suggestion that the points ignition should be re-installed to see if the car is capable to run.