no spark to distributor cap

Put a screw driver in the coil tower and rest it close to a metal ground. Jumper a wire to the negative coil terminal and tap the lead to a ground and watch for a spark off the screwdriver shaft. It should spark when you lift the ground that will test your coil. Move coil wire d to tower and other end close to a ground and trip coil.again. should see spark. That will test the lead. The distributor fires coil when it breaks the ground to the coil. Simple.....if the distributor doesn't break the ground (or has no ground to break) then it won't fire the coil.