This Chevy V8 uses an old-school Kettering-style ignition distributor. To set the timing after replacing the points and condenser, you'll need, no surprise, an old-fashioned stroboscopic timing light.

Where distributor caps and rotors once needed replacement, electronic ignitions typically keep on firing. In new vehicles, spark-plug replacement intervals are often around 100,000 miles.

Second, the high-voltage spark traveled back to the distributor where the rotor in turn distributed it to the spark plugs. Many modern cars have no distributor at all.