having a bit of a brain fart here. im not getting spark when trying to turn the engine. i put my multi meter across the coil (with the key in the run position) and got zero volts. then i tried putting the positive on the ignition pole of the starter solenoid and the negative on the block and again zero volts. then i tried the negative of the battery, zero volts. the car cranks, but there seems to be no voltage for spark. im thinking the solenoid is shot. thought about jumping from the battery to the positive of the coil and seeing if it would start that way, but im not sure if that would work. any ideas?

 

If it cranks, the solenoid is OK. You can directly run a wire to the coil + from the battery (this is called hot wiring) and it should start. I suspect you have a bad ign switch.

 

tried hot wiring it. no voltage across the coil terminals. positive terminal to cround was ok. next suspect is the coil. looked up the resistance specs and took readings from my coil. seems like my coil is the culprit. trying to find another to test it before buying a new one.

 

The coil grounds thru the points in the distributor so at best you would have pulsing voltage on the +side as the points open and close. If you have an electronic ignition, that ground is controlled by the the ignition unit.
Coil resistance should be just a few ohms on the primary (1.4-1.54 @ 70 degrees F) and about 8000 or so for the secondary.