Just for future use...

To answer how they work.. All inductive ignition coil ignition systems work this way:

You have a primary side, consisting of battery, ignition switch, ballast, coil, points, and condensor; and a secondary side consisting of the coil, wires, distributor cap and rotor, and spark plugs. The battery supplies the power. The ballast lowers the power down so the coil and points themselves do not overheat and be damaged. The power comes into the coil on it's positive side from the ballast/battery, and energizes a set of windings in it. The points connect the primary windings in the coil to the ground side. As the rubbing block spins, the corners force the points open, which breaks the circuit. As that circuit is broken, the electrical field in the coil primary windings collapses. There is a second set of windings inside a coil, called the secondary set. As the field collapses around this second set, a huge amount of energy is "induced" into them. They are connected to the coil tower, and the coil wire, and down stream of the distributor cap and rotor are the wires and spark plugs. So the spark of the secondary, is generated by the collapse of the primary. The points control the length of time the primary is closed and the coil primary windings are "charging". This is why if you leave your key on, and the ballast bypassed, the coil gets so hot. Also why MP Gold boxes say "not for street use".. They put a lot of juice the the coil primary windings 100% of the time. The point gap, or more precisely the dwell(the length of time in crank degrees), is the amount of time the secondary has to induce the spark. I use the shortest dwell spec I can (28°) so the coil has the most time to charge the primary windings. That ".010 gap" usually gives about 32° of dwell.

All inductive ignitions do this in one way or another. If you knwo how points work, you know how MSD, MP, FBO, Accell, Pertronix, Mallory, Jacobs, and anyone I missed ignitions work...