10.4v to coil wires until i hook up coil, then zero

[BrewCityMusic]

The title says it all, pretty much - if I put a DMM on the wires to the coil with no coil hooked up, I get 10.4v while turning it over, then I hook up the coil and get zero voltage when turning it over ...

It's an 88 Marathon 2 stroke, BTW - also, I noticed that the voltage slowly climbs to 10.4 as I'm turning it over, for the first few turns it's at 3-ish, then 5ish, etc until she gets rolling good, then it's at 10.4 (also, the engine takes a second to start turning over when you step on the gas, then slowly builds to full cranking RPM's) - solenoid? Regulator? PLEASE HELP !!!!!

This is the third time I replaced the coil (I have no way to test them, so for all I know all 3 are still good) - would the ignitor be the problem, perhaps (I could always go HEI) ???