i think an easier way to do this is to just reverse engineer the distributor. imagine deleting the ignition coil and ignitor and grounding that end of the coil wire, then having a wire coming from your #1 post on your cap to the ground side of the coil on plug, then have a hot with ignition on wire going to the hot side of your coil on plug. Do this for each cyclinder. In theroy the distro should ground the coil at just the right time keeping the ignition curve with your mechanical and vaccum advance... in theroy..
this is just a theory... i would have to test it out first before i would go driving around like that... i do have a bunch of newer coils sitting around my shop, maybe this weekend ill tinker with the truck. a problem is going to be making the coils stay on the plugs... most coils are flimsy and bold to the valve cover and would not stay at the angle the wires go. you would have to rig up something ugly to hold em..
and another problem would be if the 12v ground would be able to jump the gap inside the distro cap. i know the 12-16kv can but i dont know if 12v can make the jump. If it cant you dont have a ground circut and you are dead in the water.
hell yeah, lol... some kind of flat stock with holes bolted on it... haha then tie it down to the exhaust manifold
well not negative...well kinda... forget it im not going to explain. anyhow, its kinda a test and see. an easy test would be apply 12v to the top of one of the posts on the distro and have a test light in the center post and crank it over and see if the test light flashes. if it does you are in business.
Megajolt Lite Jr. by AUTOSPORTLABS (here) is your best bet. It's very affordable, it's a proven Programmable "Stand Alone Ignition System" and widely used internationally among vw's, mini's, capri's...you name it. I run a waste spark COP setup with my carb'd 4AGE. You can run it either MAP or TPS based. Here's a quick shot of my setup: If you do decide to check it out get a hold of Brent (brentP) and tell him I sent ya. There's a forum community there with quite a few buzz brains there when it comes to electronics and ignition tuning.