These systems were pretty simple. First, make sure the rotor is turning. The distributer
shaft may be stuck and you sheared the drive gear pin.

Other things would be bad pickup coil in the distributor, wrong module, bad ignition coil,
resistor wire not being bypassed in crank mode. If you have a wiring diagram it's easy to
check for proper voltages during crank and run modes. I may still have an old diagram
around. I'll look, but you might be able to find something on the 'net, too.

Check the coil, & the pickup(under cap).  Is the distributor turning?

Rob

In article
<1175094467.600830.223480@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,

If it's a Ford Duraspark from that era, there are three wires
that go into the distributor, IIRC, orange(1) and green(2) are
the pole piece, the black(3) wire is the ground for the entire
system, make sure that the ground eyelet inside the distributor
is clean bare metal on metal contact, make sure the distributor
base where it bolts to the block is clean bare metal contact.
Sitting equals rot, even after just a few months...

Check battery voltage while cranking, if it goes below 10 volts,
the ignition system shuts down.

If the engine cranks unusually fast, make sure the valve timing
is correct.