OK, this started because one day the car would crank but not start. I figure the computer has gone bad so I install the conversion kit. It runs great for a month then back to crank but no start. Looks like the pickup coil screw didn't do its job, so I reset the gap, it runs fine for 8 miles and then the next day back to crank but no start. So if dragging the zigzag connector across the intake causes the coil wire to spark, I presume that spark is coming from the ignition coil which means it is OK even if it will not spark when I ground the negative post on the coil itself.

Let me see if I have this right. The reluctor breaks the magnetic field inducing a voltage in the pickup coil, sending that pulse through the zigzag connector on pins 4 & 5 of the pentastar connector in the ECU, that in turn fires off a signal to the ignition coil, that induces a small voltage in a small winding to be a large voltage in the larger winding going into the coil wire to the top of the dist. cap and out the rotor to the spark plug and ignites the fuel. So in the simplest terms it is a three part system, distributor, ECU and ignition coil and when we ground the zigzag connector and it sparks we have taken the place of the distributor proving that the other two thirds of the system are working (even if I can't get the coil test to spark). Is that correct?

So if it is the dist., what is it in the dist.? The reluctor turns on the shaft and that is all it can do, the pickup coil or its wiring could be bad, the cap and/or rotor could be bad. Am I right with that list? What is the next approach? Do I change the cap, the rotor, the pickup coil? My old dist. had two pickup coils. Do I sub it using just the two conductor zigzag connector?

Though I have replaced the coil and replaced the computer with the conversion kit and I am still having the same problem I started with, am I overlooking something that didn't get replaced that could cause it not to crank? But why did it work so well for a month. . .and 8 miles?