No spark. Put the volt meter to it, getting 12v to the positive side of the coil, nothing to the other side. It's new, or was when bought 6 years ago, never used. Defective coil? Says ABC509 12V Internally resisted on it. I'll try a replacement. What's the right coil to use? Thanks
"Noting on the other side" may be attributed to the points not making contact in the position the distributor is setting in. Take a simple test light touch the post on the post going to distributor and ground it out. With ignition switch on and in neutral turn the engine over with the starter, the test light should flash on & off if the coil is good. You can still use your voltmeter, you'll just see the needle jump, or a reading for a split second. If you have a crank, you can turn it until points make contact, then you can test for voltage coming out of the coil. Just do a quick read to prevent burning points.
With the points in that position making contact, with the cap and dust cover removed, you can manually break the points with a small screwdriver. You should see a slight spark when you break the points. If no spark, it's one of two things. Bad condenser, or the insulator going through the side of the distributor is cracked allowing the wire to short out to the distributor case.
(The way a
ballast resistor setup works;
When the engine is cranking and the voltage is pulled down by the starter, the resistor is out of the circuit.
Once the engine starts and the key is in the run position the coil is feed through the
ballast resistor.) That is only on systems wired to work that way from the factory, and to give a good hot spark to start, then when switch is released to go back to 6V to run so the points will last longer. On this A, it's just cutting 12V back to 6V before getting to the 6V coil. All 12V systems are that way with an inline resistor inline somewhere to reduce back to 6V for longer points life. Mopar's are noted for having the ceramic ballast resistor, much like used on tractors with 12V conversion mounted on the firewall for this purpose. Back in the day, it was wise to have a spare in the glove box, as after a few years, they could burn out at any time.
Being this coil is internally resisted, he should be good as is if it is working. Testing for output voltage is in the first paragraph.