help me find an electrical gremlin, please

So I put a new pick up coil in and got noda...no spark no nothin. I've never replaced a pick-up coil before but every time I tried to set it at 008, the magnetic field was so strong that it pulled the contact into a lobe on the reluctor regardless of how hard I tightened the adjustment screw.

Took it apart again and tweaked the three prong retaining clip (bent the legs down so it would get more bite on the alignment pin. Now there is no slop and I was able to set it at 008 with no problem...stuck it back in...had a beer and went to bed ok more than one beer and went to bed.

Educate me pls...
1) obviously you don't want the reluctor bumping the contact, but will this result in no spark from the coil wire?

2) if the gap is incorrect but not touching, what are the symptoms?

3) I think I got it right now, but (tryin not to jinx myself, but I am a realist) if I still get no spark, where should I turn?

pulled the OEM coil of the barracuda so I know its good. wondering if I should swap ECUs but its a 5pin and the dart is a 4 pin
I've tinkered with it for two days now and introduced more variables so if it don't fire this morning when i try, I probably need to get back to a baseline and start troubleshooting again by the numbers from the start.

Special thanks to Bruce for all the help...

Will post again in a few