Pinto Car Club of America

Got a call today from the daughter, she said her car wouldn't start after leaving work. I stopped by on my way home and sure enough it wouldn't start but would sputter and try to start almost like it was flooded. I finally got it to crank and it sputtered and had what was like something grounding out. I went home got my tools/testers etc. to check it out, I checked to see if it had 12 volts to the coil and found it had 5 volts with the key on????, So I ran a hot wire from the battery to the coil and it fired right up and ran great...I disconnected that wire and it still had 12 volts to the coil but when I shut it off only had 5 volts??? I tried to get it to do the stalling/sputtering deal again and it never did... What would give that low reading...I'm thinking maybe a ignition switch?  Any ideas...I hate intermittent problems

could be the ballast between the Ignition coil and the battery. Id start there if you were able to start with a Direct connection from batter to coil then look at the ballast. Should be fairly cheap to replace