Originally Posted by Matt L

The positive side is broken? Well, I've never seen that one, but I will admit that it could exist. On any system that I have seen with an external coil (where you can actually discern the connections), there was no ground connection at the ignition coil. The high-tension current went through the battery, which won't affect anything given its extremely low impedance.

As for the condenser, I didn't specifically say "external" or "discrete" condenser. I imagine that there's a condenser in there.

I do know how well a points system runs with a bad condenser, as I've had a few go bad on me over the years.