update on valiant stall

a little update, the car would run and idle fine for about 15-20 min, then it would just stall like someone shut off the key. we had recently just replace the ballast resistor and mucked with the timing(I am pretty confident the timing is fine and the harmonic balancer had just slipped). while attempting to figure out the ballast resistor was bad we had purchased a new ignition coil. so, we checked the carb, fuel going in just fine. the car wouldn't start after the stall, the spark was erratic after the stall. so, we put the new coil on and the car idled for one full hour, no issues. I think that fixed it. now, for a stupid question. I know the coil takes 12-14v and bumps it up to 26,000 or so...I expected the coil to be warm, however it was so hot to the touch you could barely touch it for a split second. is it supposed to be that hot? could it be wired to the ballast resistor incorrectly? I am checking the voltage coming off the resistor tomorrow (working today and I need a more accurate volt meter). thanks for the advice guys.