at this point the distributor cap, rotor, condensor, points and wires have all been replaced.

I also rewired the connection from the firewall to the coil, and from the coil to the distributor (wires and wire ends looked original... in a bad way).

so, only thing left is the coil. i ordered one online, should arrive this week. I will report back.

thanks to all for the help and advice so far.