that white part ceramic?? Mabey a resistor of come sort? -Jon

 

Yes the white part is ceramic. I noticed on the back just above one of the terminals it is labeled battery. It looks like it has a spring wound up inside of it. on the (what I would call front side) it has a nut that threads on it. Thanks

 

Wire around it, and negate that part. It is not necessary. If your car runs, then your coil is good even though it might have a dent in it. Now, we have all been assuming you still have points. If not, then tell us.

 

Yes, there is still points and condenser under the cap.

 

I showed this to a guy that I work with today. He thinks it may be a resistor that is being used to lower voltage going to distributer. He thinks it may be the wrong coil and that the previous owner may have been having problems with burning up the points. Is this possible? Thanks

 

That's about the only explanation that makes sense. If it was mine, I would wire around it it and test the coil. It should be somewhere in the 9 volt range at the + pole, and around 6 volts on the - pole. If it is a lot higher, then wire the "Thing" back up and test again.

 

I ended up buying a new coil for the application and doing away with the THING. The car starts and runs just fine, Thanks everyone for input.