Ok, so now I am really confused
First I will say that I have the old school black box ignition (with the vacuum advance)
I checked the coil primary wire resistance on both coils....they both eventually settled at 2.5 ohms (not sure if that is close enough to the 2.8 ohms you spec'd
I then checked the coil secondary wire (spark plug wire) to the coil hold down bolt. Now because I have the old black box I couldn't take off the spark plug wire from the coil (or atleast I didn't want to pull hard enough to find out) so I measured from the metal inside the boot to the hold down bolt and got nothing. Like they weren't even connected. But the more I think about that it makes sense because the combined resistance of the coil and the plug wire should be high (because of the high current that needs to pass through). So I didn't learn much here.
I replaced all four spark plugs with slightly used ones out of an old engine I blew up 2 months ago (couldn't find the replacment ones I wanted yet, need to order online).
I pulled off the starter ground and cleaned the frame connection and the connector to make sure there was a good connection. Then I chesked the ground at the battery and everything was solid.
I also got some starting fluid and sprayed that in during the next step (to no avail)...
So after all this I tried firing it up and......nothing, still wouldn't start. So I was getting a little pissed at the car at this point and just started cranking and slamming on the gas pedal (for like 10 minutes....it was a long tantrum) then .....to my surprise it started stumbling a little more.....then a little more....then vroom off she went . Once started she ran like nothing was wrong. Revved all the way up to 10k (to my neighbors amusment I'm sure) and no problems.
So I have no clue what happened. I eventually warmed the engine up and now I am letting it cool back down and I will try it again periodically throught the afternoon and tommorow to see if it has any more problems.
The only thing I can think of came after I read the "what fuel do you use" string in which someone said that sometimes higher octane gas at the pump can sit longer in the ground at the station and get problems. I am wondering if this played into the matter? I don't know but this weekend I am going to drive out of my way to try and get some CAM2 100 octane stuff to mix in with my sunoco 93 octane to see if that helps? I may also get some octane boost from Autozone and add that.
This all seemed to start after I got gas from a different than the usual gas station?
Anyway I will let you guys know if it gets any better once I up the octane of this batch. If it's not that I think I am going to start saving for a redbox and coil ignition system.
Thanks for all your help!!!
Gerad