John,
I thought that special nut was buried in the insulator on the outside of the distributor housing. Would a inexpensive pair of needle nose pliers sharpened to a point or a pair of snap ring pliers work to remove the nut.
Have you tracked power from the key side of the coil to the primary lead wire....the one that goes to your special nut. The points must be properly adjusted to 'fire' the coil.
Stuart
