You're lucky it was only the 50,000 volt. The first models were 60,000 and it was real hard to keep rotors and wires. If a plug wire failed or fell off, the spark had to go somewhere and it usually went through the rotor.
You are right about the voltage, don't go through a resistor when cranking -- but you don't need 12 gage wire, 16 will work.
Heres my advice replace magnetic pickup and module.Well worth the investment If it was like it was shutting down ,Do both .Module doesnt do it all the time.Forget testing Just rebuid it .My 2 centsAnd also I got zapped from the 50.000 volts and 156 or 20 years later I can stll remember the pain and what it felt like.........i
the check the spark without a tester just set the gap at .060 ground the plug turn it over with the switch on should be a big blue spark most common problems are low voltage, loose terminal,needs min 12 volts to operate properly
I've seen these symptoms with a flaky ignition wire. Often the wire is good enough for 'most' of the time, but cuts out as well. Makes it hard to find by simply pulling the wire. Replacing the wires, one at a time if need be, with known good wire(s) can help spot this.
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