i went over my distributor, plugs, coil and igniter last night. it turns out my coil is always getting power, and it is always grounded. to the best of my knowledge it is supposed to pulse on ground to fire the distributor properly.
i am thinking there could be a ground somewhere in the path to the coil, but i don;t knwo where any help is awesome
thanks
james

 

coil + (positive terminal) should always have 12v when the ignition switch is on.
coil - (ground terminal) is connected to ground through the igniter module.
When the igniter receives the proper signal, it disconnects the coil - (negative) from ground, and that causes the magnetic field in the coil primary windings to collapse thus inducing voltage on to the secondary windings of the coil, causing voltage on the lead to the distributor which in turn directs the voltage to the appropriate spark plug which should go "bang".

 

thanks for the insight, i'll see what i can find out with that info