Is that what it is?

I pulled my plugs today to put in the new ones. Trailing plugs are fouled, black, ick. Leading plugs are white, hot?, ick.

I had been fiddling with replacing ignitors, and finally have 2 good ignitors.

But I pulled the wire, and got no spark. No spark at the distributor. Shouldn't there be spark? Engine doesn't change sound at all when I pull the trailing wires.

And might this fix my tachometer problem? I'm assuming if the coil is bad, then no power would be going to the tachometer too?

SO, I guess I need a new coil? The part that bolts onto the driver's side fender:
(Didn't have a picture from my car on the computer already)

 

you SURE you have good ignitors?

 

I believe the car wouldn't run with bad ignitors, correct?

What I did:

The car drove when I got it. So the leading ignitor is good (correct?)
I switched ignitors (only had the 2 on the car) and the car wouldn't start. Crank, crank, crank, no start. Switch back, car starts. Therefore, 1 ignitor bad (trailing).

Bought 4 from someone on here (thanks).
Swapped my good (leading) ignitor into the trailing spot. Then swapped in the acquired ignitors into the leading position until the car started.

That's how I know I have 2 good ignitors.

Unless they can be partially bad, I have 2 good ignitors, and at least 2 bad ignitors (only tested 2 I bought, 2nd one worked, first did not)

So with 2 good ignitors on the car, I pulled the wire from the distributor to check for spark. No spark jumping from the distributor to the wire, unlike the leading wires. (on them, engine tries dying, until I put the wire close enough for the spark to jump)

I'm looking for what that part bolted to the side is called, so I can check local junkyards.