Appreciate your help. I do have a voltmeter and 3 manuals, including the Haynes. Not very helpful, at least not to me-maybe it's because I don't fiddle with it enough.

I got shocked when the key was turned to the on position, but before the engine was cranked. Sounds right according to what you said in your earlier reply.

That is correct, I pulled it out of the middle of the dist cap, and held about a quarter of an inch from a good/tested ground - No sparks.

I will be taking a hard look under the distributor cap tomorrow when it warms up a little. It's been below freezing here for the last 2 days. Thanks for your help, and I'll post my findings tomorrow.

Ish