8v input at ballast resistor

I am looking into an issue with my boat not running great, it runs fine for a bit then acts like it lost some cylinders. I started testing voltages and the high side of the ballast resistor was 8V or a little over, low side was 4.5V. I checked voltage at the solenoid and breaker back there and get 12.5V. Unplugged the Mallory distributor (Skidim conversion kit for Protec) & voltage went up to 12.2. Is this normal? I am sniffing in the right area?

I don't know if it's causing your problem or not but you are losing voltage, ~3V, somewhere.  Probably through the dash.  You should read battery voltage at the input to the resistor.

When you disconnected the distributor the load was removed so the current draw went down or to zero.  If there is no or low current flowing through the circuit then there won't be any IR voltage losses and the voltage should go up at the resistor.  So it may or may not be a problem with the module but it sounds like you have a wiring problem either way.

I did some rewiring, increased the wire size going to the ignition switch with better connectors and took the clock out of that loop. Voltage went up to 10.52 V. I also ran into an issue where the idle wouldn't decrease below 1,200 rpm. I thought perhaps the floats were adjusted incorrectly, since I did some checking on the carb to see if there was an internal issue. With the carb off the intake I noticed gas inside. I adjusted the floats, put it back on and got it running again and the rpm's started climbing. The warmer it got, the faster it got until it got up to 1800. The curb idle screw had no effect and I finally shut if off. I noticed gas on the secondary throttle blades. I went ahead and pulled the carb off again, thinking it must be a carb issue, possibly a rebuild needed. I then wondered if it could be a high fuel pressure issue. I'm thinking the next step is to test the fuel pressure. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help. Here’s a little more about what I have done. The last time I pulled it off I adjusted the secondaries per the instructions in the rebuild kit I had from a few years ago. I backed the screw out until it just touched, then I screwed it in one half turn. The primary side I set no more than square on the transfer slots. When running, the curb idle screw wouldn’t reduce rpm’s, but it would increase them. Also, I took the linkage loose while running it to see if that would make a difference. It didn’t.

I have had the bowls off 3-4 times this season and taken the metering block and metering plate off at least once each along with removing the power valve from the metering block. Do you think it could be an internal leak and just needs gaskets?