Well, I finally got enough hooked up to the LUV to take it for a spin. I replaced the engine gaskets because they were leaking bad, I installed the offy and some headers. I finally got it all up and ready to run. I started her up, set the timing, everything was fine! Me and a buddy hopped in and took it for a spin around the block. About a mile down the road, the luv died.
After some quick almost tool-less diagnostics we found out there was no sparks. We brainstormed for a little while, but can't seem to figure it out. We know the coil is not pushing out any sparks, which I guess means it could be related to points? However, when I crank the engine, the points still pop up and down, plus I wouldn't figure the points would cause it to just stop all the sudden. I checked all the fueses, and everything was good.
Before we left, we were tightning stuff down, and we realized the resistor on the coil was very hot... although I figure that is normal since all a resistor does is burn off extra power.
What should my next move be? replace coil, replace resistor, or upgrade distributor to electronic? I've nearly depelted the LUV fund for the summer with the intake, headers, gaskets, and random other things I added (like electronic fan, etc), so I'm hoping I can run off the stock distributor for a little longer till I can save more for a new one, but if I have to, I can cheat a little on my budget
Also to note, I guess it's a good thing the LUV stopped producing sparks because we noticed it was leaking oil out of the valve cover very rapidly, which makes me thing I probably didn't install my valve cover gasket correctly.
PS, Does anybody know what the torque rating for the valve cover is supposed to be at? There is still oil on the dipstick, so I don't think I lost too much for the screwed up gasket.
anyway, here is a picture of the thing... One with the engine intact, the other while welding exhaust.

