At first I tried it further upstream (toward the stator). There's a double female connector on the black wire with an empty side where I could put the wire. I did, but all it did was light up brightly no matter where I turned the flywheel. Then I pulled the tank so I could get to the coil, and put the wire in that connection, after unplugging it from the coil. Had the same result. So then it dawned on me that I needed to turn the key on, and that's when it started dimming when I turned it past the mark.

If I use the upstream double connector with the key on, then it would probably be smart to pull the spark plug wire off.

Ok i shouldn carry it on--but--ok i understand 'i think' when you unplugged it at the coil & it still didn't work, the mag loom would still be going to the main loom, so key does come into it 'still' earthing it out when off. If you'd unplugged the black where mag loom goes to the main loom you'd have the same result you now have & with a choice of the short black low down or end of the black--both the same wire with a branch. Only realy saying this to see if i'm right or not & someone will save me haha. Like what you did & good to see the video.

After thinking about it, if I had unplugged the black wire to the secondary coil at the mag loom, and used that connection, it probably would have worked without turning the key on. However, where it plugs in they have a double female connector, so the test wire can be put there without unplugging it, which is what I did initially. As you said, the black wire at the secondary coil has a branch to the ignition switch, which earths it. Once the mag loom is unplugged, that is out of the circuit.

I'm learning as I go. Next time, I'll just unplug the black at the mag loom, then put the test wire there. BUT I am super happy that my eyeball/magnifying glass setting of the points seems to be spot on, and now I can easily recheck it down the line.

Pretty sure I mentioned disconnecting in test light instructions...  anyway, you figured it out!  Great job.

Mark, you did say to disconnect the black wire at the harness, but I just glossed over that, or didn't realize the reason why. So as usual, I learned the hard way :0)

By the way, I need to correct something... that bulb I used was not an LED. I found it in a package marked LED, but it's the original incandescent bulb that was in the underhood light fixture of my Ram pickup. I replaced it with an LED bulb 3 years ago, and put the old bulb back in the LED packaging. Actually many LEDs may not even work because most of them are not dimmable.

The cool thing about this bulb is that it has wire loops at each end, which makes it very easy to wrap wire around them and solder. I put heat shrink around the ends of it, so if it touches the engine case it won't spark

This is a similar one.

www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/eiko-lighti...-2016-ram-1500?pos=1