Ok, finally got the wife to go out to crank it over for me and the results were good, till they were bad. I pulled the coil cable and got absolutely no spark on the block, multiple tries. New coil!, I thought, and was happy to think it would be that easy. I figured I'd also check to make sure the distributor was spinning before I celebrated an easy fix. Well, the rotor isn't spinning when cranked. darn!
So, since I've never had a distributor go bad on me in my 61 years, I'm ignorant in this area. I'm assuming that the coil has nothing to do with the distributor's function, since it works off the engine's mechanical movement, so I'm assuming my dist. gear is stripped? Ouch! I've read a few other posts on that subject today (one of them yours, Hotrod), and it sounds like I'm in for a learning experience if this is what has happened. I've read about pulling the crank, chiseling the gear hub off and all kinds of mean, nasty things. Am I missing anything that may mean I'm wrong on this? Or is it time to pull the distributor now? Man, I was sure hoping that I just had a bad coil before I pulled that cap. What's everybody's opinion on this. Is it pretty certain? Thanks again for the help and let me know what's next. Lee

"When I rest, I rust"
1951 3100 5 window w/ '56 235