"@Marshall V. Daut - I was afraid someone would say that!"
Ha, ha, ha! Farethy well said. 'Dunno how much experience you have had repairing Model A's, but whether you be a neophyte or an old hand with scarred-up fingers, all of us Model A lovers will admit that FoMoCo built a ton of "gotcha's" into these cars. You have just encountered one of the more benign, albeit still frustrating, designed features that makes working on Model A's a new sharp stick in the eye every day. Old Henry and his crew did so many things right when creating the Model A; but he/they also ingrained so many repair-challenging aspects into these cars as to drive one nearly insane with frustration. That so many running changes were made during the Model A's production span testifies to the fact that even FoMoCo engineers knew they had made a lot of mistakes on their drafting boards. Needing to pull the distributor from the cylinder head just to separate it from the ignition cable is one of those "Why the H*ll did you people do this???" design features. Welcome to the club!
But you know what? It's these quirks that give the Model A its lovable personality that has endeared it to hundreds of millions of people worldwide for almost 100 years. Although sometimes I would love to b*tch-slap FoMoCo's designers for how they made the Model A such a challenge to repair and restore, I give them credit for creating a wonderful piece of Americana Motoring. How many other century-old machines are more beloved and still useful than the Model A??? With the POSSIBLE exception of the Model T, me thinks the Model A deserves the loving devotion it has earned for itself among us devotees, armored ignition cables notwithstanding.
Marshall