1965 Barn Find Dart starting issues

get +12 to the coil and lay the high tension lead from coil tower on the exhaust manifold, get the conductor brass as close as you can to the iron without touching it. now just take a ground wire from the coil - and touch it to the manifold. as soon as you lift it, you should see a spark. Its the breaking of the ground connection that causes the coil to generate a spark, ie. "breaker points" Thats what the distributor does when it opens the points 4 times a crank revolution.