Took the fairlane out for its first lengthy drive in warmer weather. It was definitely running warmer than before but not outside of the "ok" bar on the gauge. Got a ways out when I started getting random misfiring at idle. From that point things got worse pretty rapidly and I was getting lots of random misses at all engine speeds. I pulled over at one point to let everything cool off with the hood open, the coil was too hot to touch for long. I waited about 15 min and there was slight improvement. I limped it home and parked it.

I thought maybe the ignition was seeing too much voltage due to the 15+ volts the (new) regulator was set at. Prior to this drive I'd reset the voltage at 80*F to just under 15, at the middle of the spec'd range per the manual. I rechecked output today and it was well over 15 again. I reset it to a little over 13, which is much less than spec'd. With all the lights and the blower on, engine at about 1000 rpm, the number was about 12.8. Even with the engine at idle speed, the coil was seeing about 10V.

After a while of running like this I started getting random misfires until the engine quit. I tried bypassing the resistor but it wasn't totally clear whether that helped. I think it might've. Still, I don't know why the coil would need more than 10V. I checked the voltage drop through the points using my ancient Engine Analyzer, and the drop was less than 0.2V. The engine would start up pretty easily after quitting but would run poorly and briefly. Dwell is at 26*, initial timing at 10*, resistor and coil resistances check out correctly. The coil was quite hot again so I swapped it for an old spare I had, the one that was on the car when I bought it. It fired right up but exhibited the exact same symptoms as the other coil.

I haven't tried replacing the condenser this time, but here's what bugs me: resistor, coil, points, condenser, plugs, dist cap and rotor, and wires have all been replaced in less than 1000 miles. The coil, an Autozone unit, has been replaced under warranty once in an effort to rule it out as a bad unit. My other car, a 1962 Chrysler, got all of these components replaced exactly once and has never had a hiccup in a couple thousand miles over several years; its coil is also mounted laying down on the engine. I don't want to believe that all of the ignition parts I can buy at the local store are unreliable junk.

Any ideas what I'm missing here?

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive