[hueyhoolihan]

if you have a canister style coil and the coil wire is pulled OUT OF THE CANISTER, AND THE IGNITION IS ON and even if the engine is NOT running there will be no spark from the coil wire. however, if under the same circumstances, and the coil wire has been pulled OUT OF THE DISTRIBUTOR CAP, there will be quite a jolt emitted from the end of the coil wire every time the points are opened. and that can easily be accomplished on most distributors. IOW, the engine need not be running, nor the engine turning over at all under some combination of circumstances to get a spark from the end of a coil wire plugged into a canister coil if the ignition has been turned on.