Hi, trying to narrow what has turned into a pile of problems. A couple of weeks ago I drove the 70 RR down to do some training at the place I used to work before starting my own office. Went out to start it to go home and nothing. Did as much trouble shooting as I could then called for a tow. Had its sorry ass dragged up as far as our old place where I left it as we were taking off the next day to fly to St Vincent for a 10 day sailing trip to Grenada with some friends. Had got as far as determining something was wrong in the distributor, way too much rotation in the rotor.
Get back from sailing trip, clear some work backlog, then drag it up to our place with Michelle's 67 Land Rover. Pull distributor, figure out that the vertical piece the rotor clicks onto is loose on the rectangular piece with the advance slots. Never had this happen before on any distributor. After disassembling it, I set the piece in the right location and peened the bottom better. Then had my welder friend tig a couple of tacks on. Thought this fixed it.
Now, before pulling the distributor apart, I took it out, pulled the coil wire off the cap, put a spare spark plug on the coil wire and spun the shaft. Great spark.
Put back together, decide to test it, no spark using same test technique. I had checked the reluctor gap, fine at 0.008. Tried jumping the leads for a spark. Nothing. Took the known coil out of Michelle's Rover. Nothing. Check 12 volts at switch under dash. 12 volts there. Oh, ignition switch also went bad just before all this, stayed on, so had been killing engine with clutch then disconnecting battery every time, pain.
So, does anyone know how to check the pickup? I think there is an ohm range it is supposed to be in. I will check out the MSD site for trouble shooting procedures but if anyone has some ideas on how to trouble shoot the box, especially isolating it as much as possible from the rest of the system that will be great.

Also thought I had an exhaust leak so pulled left side header. Discovered starter about to fall out, bottom plug completely missing, top one almost fallen off. Why it cranked I have no idea.

When it rains it pours. Can get new ignition switch from Rock Auto, would rather not order a pickup if not needed but might just want to have one on shelf. Oh, distributor is Mopar Performance, the one without the Mallory innards.

Give me a Lucas electric system any day. I am actually not kidding.