Schurkey and eightballz and all,
First thanks for the help.
I went to town today and bought a spark tester.
When I got back I checked all wires first, made sure the distributor rotated when cranked and it looked fine. I also tried the shis kabob stick as a lever with the points closed and carefully pried them open. Each time I got a weak spark sound but could see no light.
To see if the tester worked I tried it on my mustang. Connected it , held it in my hand and told the wife to crank it. 3 quick shocks to my hand later I realized it works well
Then I connected it to a spark plug and the wire from the coil on the mustang and had it turned on. I got a very bright light on the tester that lit up the whole plastic globe, my wife said it reminded her of a neon light.
Then to the Toronado.
First I placed the spark tester to the wire from the coil and made it part of the circuit to the top of the distributor cap. I got a rapidly pulsating light. The light was weak and had a orangish -red color.
Next I made the tester part of the circuit to a spark plug from the distributor. I got a slightly weaker light that was the same color but much slower pulsations (I attribute the timing/distributor system doing its job and "parceling out the spark to all 8 plugs).
To honestly compare the two cars it would be something like this:
66 toro. --
96. GT ------------------------- (In terms of brightness of the spark tester)
So I'm guessing the culprit is weak spark from the coil???
It's a new coil I put on last year.
Could it be the ignition switch
Other ideas?
Thanks very much all for any further suggestions
Checkov
PS Otto , one little puzzle I have is the car had two owners before me and I'm wondering if I'm betting the correct power feed to the coil.