Jimferrar,

Unless you are going for a stock show trophy you don't want to replace the polarity reversing switch on your rig..this assumes it had on in the first place.

The breaker plate that holds the points was insulated from the distributor body and the points found ground through the reversing switch located on the starter. That's why your distributor has the funny two wires hooked to it.

If I remember correctly, to bypass this funky setup, you need to ground the breaker plate through that second terminal sticking out of the side. Your coil - should go to one terminal and the other terminal needs to be wired to a screw or bolt on the engine...it needs to ground the breaker plate.

Before you do this, pull the distributor cap, turn the key to ON and with a small screwdriver, wiggle the points apart. There should be NO spark.

Now ground the terminal that doesn't have the point spring attached to it as I mentioned above. Do the same drill with the key ON and open the points with the little screwdriver...they should spark.

The points have to be in good shape and gapped correctly for the engine to start. The condenser has to be good too! If either of these are goofy, no amount of good coils will make a ZAP! The points are the brains of the outfit...they tell the dumb coil what to do.

Try these things and let us know what happens.

Stuart