Ok.. kinda weird... no spark for days. Put on a new ballast resistor just cause I had a spare anyway.. old ballast had some cracks in back of ceramic.. still no spark... read 70chal 440 comment so got the logic probe.. had wife put in run position.. 6.5 volt at coil. Had wife crank it and it started immediately which it never does on a good day.. coil reading 8.2 volt on + side when running..
So,, either
1). Intermittent issue decided to start for me now to make the wife look good and me like an idiot..
2). When I slid the negative and then positive connectors back a smidge on the coil to get the probe to touch metal. That made the difference...so maybe crimp em a little tighter then slide back on or use screws....
Was thinking it may be the pickup in the distributor but I would assume if it was that that's usually not an intermittent kinda issue... more when they fail, they stay failed.. correct?
Anyway,, going to drive it around a bit.. see how she does....