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Put the timing light on it & check both one & four,

Paul, are you referring to just a bulb to see when the points open in relation to the crank position, or a regular timing light on the running engine?

Does it have the original style copper leads or are they something better or worse?

It has new Bosch wires on it I got from IPD. I replaced the ones that came with the car when I noticed that, on wet winter's days, I had a bit of a lightning storm under the hood. I assume these are not the solid copper core wires, but the ones on my B9 generator are, and I could swap them in, or, at least put one on #1.

But if the wire were bad, would the plug still throw a solid spark?

A trusted, for his expertise, off-line friend suggested, without much hope, that since I had checked the runner on the intake manifold for mouse debris, I might as well do the same for the exhaust mani. I'll do that first, just to rule out that slight possibility, before I button the whole thing up again and check the stuff you suggested.

Thanks for bearing with me.

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‘62 PV544 (B20, M41), '71 142E, '93 240 Classic Wagon, ’52 Ford 8N.