It seems as if my car has lost spark.

Cranks fine, fuel seems fine. Will not start.

Ballast resistor checks out OK.

Is there a good way to test to see if the coil is bad?

We seem to have connectivity/juice on both sides of the coil but don't seem to have any output from the coil.

What is the best 'next step' if the coil tests all right?

Any suggestions apprieciated.

thanks!

you should have 12v volts on the input side of the coil and should keep a test light lit during crancking. while putting the test light on the other side, it should flash during crancking indicating that you distributor is pulling the coil to ground collapsing the electrical field. if this is occuring you most likely have a bad coil.

Did you pop the coil wire out of the cap, crank it and see if you have sprak?

Use a jumper wire with alligator clips on each end to ground the coil negative primary terminal repeatedly like Morse Code & see if that makes the coil secondary wire (dist end) held 1/4" from ground produce sparks while a helper holds the key to start. Can unplug the yellow "sol" wire at the starter relay to disable the starter for this test. Best is to 1st take off all wires from the coil neg primary terminal. If it sparks it's good but a coil can test good cold then act up when at operating temp but this'll get you started

I had my tach wire ground out going through the firewall will no grommet disconnest the tach. if you have one then try to start it or maybe check the wires over

Doug,

You can test the coil using a digital multimeter.

If it's a stock coil
Primary resistance @ 70-80* = 1.41-1.55 or 1.65-1.79
ohms

Secondary same temp = 9200-10700 or 9400-11700 ohms

first set is for stock coil 2444241 second set 2444242

Out of the FSM. It has the test procedures in there.

http://autorepair.about.com/od/troubleshooting/ss/coil-test-ohm.htm

Thanks everyone.

Very helpful!

Doug are you sure that the distributor is spinning??
Ron

OK so now you have some voltage to check for.
I believe you said the Ballest Resistor is good