I have come up with a solution to my problem.. when my battery was at full charge everything worked fine... but once it dropped below 3.8 volts it would no longer retard the spark... not sure why???

I put together a new battery set up that has completely solved my problem...

I have a 7.2 volt battery for a kenwood two way radio that I soldered a lead to...
now the CH Ignition needs to have between 4.8 and 6 volts, so 7.2 was too high...
I picked up a 5 volt 1 amp voltage regulator at radio shack for $2.99 and soldered it in-line with 2 other leads to lower to voltage down to just under 5 volts...
now I have a battery pack that kept my engine running for 4+ hours @1300rpm on the bench and still had 6.1 volts left in it when I shut her down... YAY!!!

below are the pics I took of the battery pack and in-line regulator just before hooking it up to the ignition..
the last two pics are a little dark but they show the voltage of the battery and then the voltage of the regulator output...


[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00233.JPG]Image 1[/link]
[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00234.JPG]Image 2[/link]
[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00240.JPG]Image 3[/link]
[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00241.JPG]Image 4[/link]
[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00245.JPG]Image 5[/link]
[link=http://home.insightbb.com/~littlechiefers/battery/DSC00247.JPG]Image 6[/link]