Sounds like the igniter (pick-up) in the distributor is bad. The piece under the rotor is the signal rotor (4 sided piece) and triggers the igniter to open the circuit to the coil to fire the spark. That has the hot wire from key and a wire to the coil on it. The coil has a hot wire from the key and the wire from the igniter connected to it, like you said your's is wired. See if the coil sparks by just turning the key on and off. If it does it proves your coil and the wiring are ok. Then, if it doesn't spark while the distributor is cranking and turning I would say that igniter is bad in the distributor. part # 1017045