No spark when cranking

^^To put this another way...^^

All US manufacturers did the same thing. All of them COULD have used a coil which operates off 12-14V directly with no resistor

But if they had done so, then when cranking, the spark would be WEAKER because of the drain from the starter.

So they all used a lower voltage coil, running on (nominal) 8-11V through a resistor, and incorporated a bypass circuit for start

IN GM, AMC, and Ford, this is the extra contact on the starter solenoid. In Mopars, it was built into the ign switch.

Part of the reason for this was the advent of higher compression engines, which require more spark. "Back in" the 6V days, engines were very low compression. They didn't need as much spark to fire

(Far's I'm concerned, going from 6V to 12V was a mistake. They SHOULD have just gone right to 24V)