Hammer65 if the battery voltage is below 10.6 volts you will not get a good spark and have hard starting. If you left the IGN switch on, not good. Pull the cap on the distributor and check the center post in the cap that it is still there and there are no burnt marks or holes on the rotor. After checking and if everything is OK, put back togeather and pull coil wire fron center of cap and crank motor with good battery on full charge. Leave the wire in the hole and crank you should hear and see the sparking. If it sparks, the msd is ok and the car should start, if not you either killed the coil or cooked the MSD box. There are some test for the MSD in there website for trouble shooting problems. One suggestion, buy and carry enough tools to swap out the box, coil, cap, rotor, or pickup on the side of the road. If you have the extra money get a good used distributor also. One more test, without the coil hooked up, crank the motor and make sure you are getting
oil pressure in the motor. After 5-10 seconds and you have none, pull the distributor and check the gear on the bottom. You might have a broken roll pin. Rick L.