[Hil911]

The story continues.

The engine was still missing - blowing out unburnt fuel and backfiring.

But which cylinder?

Suddenly I had a Duh! moment. Use the timing gun. I should be able to see the pulse in any lead. Long story short: no pulse on cylinder 2. It was 5 and 6 with bad connections before!

Tested resistance distributor cap to plug in #2 lead: same as the good ones: about 4.05 KOhm. Obviously loose, so I pulled it out and fixed it.

Ran engine - no pulse! The lead is good and the connections are good but no pulse! Distributor cap is new and good.

Hello ... moved Pertronix sensor closer to rotor. Now a VERY irregular pulse on cylinder 2.

I have new leads in a new cap that don't work AND a Pertronix unit with one magnet in the rotor that is too weak to trigger a pulse. I won't buy a lottery ticket this week.