Putting a volt meter against the coil I found out a few things. With the ignition on(all the tests were done this way), and the truck NOT running, the pos post on the coil came to a steady 6v. The neg post was a steady 1v. Disconnecting the pos wire from the coil and testing that came to 12v, the neg had 0v. With the truck running the pos post fluctuated from 2v to 10v. The neg post had a steady 6v.

I'm thinking this brand new coil is bad, but I suppose there is a possibility that the starter relay is bad, causing the pos side to fluctuate like that with it running. But I figure that if the relay was bad I would have seen something when I pulled the pos connector off the relay and picked up 12v.

What do you guys think? The truck is parked in a parking lot and they are towing it on Saturday morning. If I can't get it moved tomorrow I'm screwed.

Ford ignition only uses 7-9v in run.
12v with key in start.
That comes from the relay I terminal
Only voltage with key in start.

The neg post is the spark trigger terminal.

Are you saying you have arcing from one coil terminal to another terminal?

You can verify the coil condition with a multimeter.
Do resistance tests between terminals.

What is the resistance supposed to be?

Very low across the low voltage connections.....maybe .5 to 2 ohms and from the high voltage output to the negative coil post 8-15 k ohms

This test dunkin talks of should be the same when the coil is warm as well.
if the coil gets hot when ke is on, it is probably shorted inside

Here is a link to the 1978 manual...ignition section:

http://www.fordtruckfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30020

So the coil wasn't the problem. I'm goin back to the carb cause it dies if I don't give it enough gas, and if it's too much it stalls out and dies. I'm gonna do more carb tests tomarow and find out.

Static timing is good?

It idles high. Don't have a tach so I don't know where but I want to say around 2000 or 2500. That's what I timed it at to 12 degrees.

If it was that high when you timed it....there would have been mechanical advance in.....you're timing is probably out to lunch....once the rpms drop and the mechanical advance retards it will run like crap

So, I realized today while staring at my motor that I might have hooked up my coil backwards. After removing the wires again and testing the voltage I was right. Idiot me... Hooked it up right and had an astounding change in sound. Timed it again and took it for a test drive. Found I had no power going up a hill, stalls, but stays running, when before it would just die without hesitation. Once I got the truck leveled out or going down a hill I had more power than I knew what to do with. Wonderin if my fuel pump is going out and just can't pump against gravity.

Also it still idles really high. Still can't figure that out.

You need to look at your static timing

Really high idle with idle screw all the way down usually indicates a major vacuum leak.
With the carb issues your talking about I wonder if the carb is loose or a bad mounting gasket?

Found out the high idle was a clogged vacuum advance. Cured it and static timed it. Still can't climb a hill though.

You static timed it at idle?

So, I found out that if I remove the vacuum advance hose and time it to 10 advance it runs great, climbs just fine, no problems at all. If I plugged the hose back in timing would jump about 30 degrees advance. I know the timing advance was working properly and figured something was wrong with the dizzy. Returned all the crap I bought for it and ordered and HEI from Summit. Got it installed and timed again but still wont climb a hill unless I'm pushing enough RPMs. Drove it to work today without any plugs for the advance so when I get home I'm going to remove the plug again, re time it, and drive it to see if it climbs.

If that works what would that be? New dizzy that's working just fine but removing the vacuum advance from the equation makes it run properly... Doesn't make any sense to me. What are you're guys thoughts on it?

I noticed in your earlier post you mentioned running "hotter" plugs... i actually had issues with misfiring and rough running conditions before using hotter echo (e3 and alike) plugs. may want to try running stock temp plugs and see if that cures your power issue.

I did end up replacing those with new plugs again. Not as hot of spark now. Did that a week ago.