Vintage Cars: sudden death contd, open circuits, vaporlock

Question
Hi Ron,
I asked you about the p1800 stalling out last week if you recall.You advised that first off it might be a gas issue-vaporlock or supply.After stalling out 3 times and mysteriously restarting after a while I changed the gas filter and one of the hoses as well.The fuel pump is working strong.I pulled the fuel line up by the injectors and put a cup there. fuel came blasting out.I checked for a spark by pulling one of the cables and keeping it near the plug to arc I got nothing. Could the coil be faulty?
I was considering converting to the plantronix electronic ignition in the future. May be now would be a good time to go for the ignition and coil,What do you think?

Answer
Coils seldom go bad but they can, there is a test proceedure if you have am Ohm meter.  Google coil testing and it will come up.  Sounds like you have eliminated fuel issue so now onto electrical.   I once had a short at my points which caused sudden death and non starting untill corrected. If you have a continuity tester then  Check your grounding for open circuits to and from the distribuor. You could also try to replicate the sudden death by moving the wires around the distributer and coil, be careful not to get zapped!.  I can't remeber if you told me you replaced the cap, rotor and points. You may want to do that I have heard good things about the platronix, I just have not used one myself as I opt to try and keep everything original.
Let me know how things go