coil fire??

i just went thru a bucket of Mopar bolts and found 2 very old coils, hooked pos jumper from starter relay, i had power out of both coils at neg post, so i have to beleive i fried the new coil in a matter of seconds. i will go out and hook the old coil up to dist and see what i get for a few seconds, not gonna hook up pos coil wire from harness or ballast for now and see if i get current again at points. got to be wired shoring out in harness somewhere????????? i'll be back.