Yes, the coil will work if installed backwards. It sounds funny, but it's true: if you hook up your coil backwards, it will work backwards! This is not good for the coil, and it doesn't do performance any favors, either. Always hook up your coil with the correct polarity. If in doubt, always remember that the distributor is ground; the wire to the points, or the wire back to the ignition module that goes to "trigger" or "pickup", or otherwise is sent to ground in the module, is ground.
