I had the key off and adjusted the gap with everything still pluged in. Is it posible to short the pertronix out with a feeler gauge. found a set of points and the car started.I there a way to test the unite and how.

Hmmn, are you sure you had the polarity correct??

all it takes is 1/10th of a second to fry it as soon as you turn the key on...

It ran before i pop the cap off but in my neverending quest for perfection I just had to check it. never changed anything else wires were the same

More than likely it's toast...it either works or it doesn't....check and see if you are inside your warranty.

Doesn't sound like you had the wires hooked up backwards if it ran before. Maybe the gap is too large? They won't work if the gap is set too large.

I don't recall any way of testing just the unit.