I totally forgot the basic first step. With an analog meter, do a resistance check, at X1 scale, to see if you have a sweeping deflection (meter movement) as the condensor charges. If the condensor is open, no deflection.
Unfortunately I don't have an analog meter. I found a procedure for testing with a digital multimeter, but I'm not confident it actually works.
Regardless, I figured out what the problem was this time, without any doubt. I was about to say $#!= it, after installing yet another new condenser and getting no start, when I decided to re-check a few things with my meter. I immediately discovered that the hot side of the points were grounded. What the heck?? I had used a piece of rubber to insulate the stud coming thru the side of the distributor and apparently after it got hot, it allowed the stud to short to the base of the distributor. Obviously no fire with this situation. I put a nylon spacer on the stud outside of the distributor and re-checked everything. All good and the truck fired right up. I took my victory lap around the neighborhood successfully, came home, shut it off then restarted. It's going to take a few successful runs before I'm confident, given what I've been thru, but it all seems good.
The question now is whether this was my problem all along. There was a cracked bakelight washer on that stud that I replaced with the rubber. It looked like it would have worked as an insulator, but now I'm not so sure. Was it shorting after getting warm? After my frustration wears off, I may go back and try the 2 condensers, and the old coil, all one at a time, to see if in fact any of them are bad. I'm not so sure now.
