Tom:

No, what it will do is reduce the current in the coil to the point you don't get enough spark to reliably fire the plugs under load. The spark is produced by the collapse of the magnetic field produced by current flow in the primary winding -- the secondary winding is conneted to the top spark lead and has about 1000 windings to each winding of the primary (so it produces 12,000 V instead of 12). Simple transformer. However, sufficient current has to flow in the primary to make the magnetic field first, so if you have too much resistance, the output voltage and current will be low, hence bad spark.

I'd consider a Pertronix or Crane replacement -- I'm going to spring for a Pertronix breakerless point replacement this month, I'm tired of cleaning the points all the time, and when the switchbox croaks, I'm going to put a newer design in.

The usual reason the switchbox dies is the big switching transistor, so if you still have one of the old ones, I'd take it apart and go to Radio Shack and get a replacement transistor. Someone posted the part number on the forum last year, do a search and you may have a "new" switchbox for pretty cheap! There's only about six parts in there, soldered to a board.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!