Newbie to British bikes need help with a65 no spark diagnosis

[Fwmurphy88]

Let me preface this by saying I have rebuilt motors and can usually fix most things mechanical but these BSAs and Triumphs are a breed of their own!!
Recently I took out my dads '69 A65T to try and get it running for kicks...
First issue was the 'petrol taps' being the original cork, the tank was leaking like a sieve...new o-rings and some light lubrication and these original Ewarts pop out and in like they should with ease and don't leak...
Next was the carb and air filter, the needle and bowl were caked with dried gas remnants and so everything got a thorough cleaning including a new filter and reassembled...
Now I've got no spark and have searched through the workshop manual which wasn't very helpful, but there is a missing battery, no capacitor that I can find and also can't find the diode...I've always kept my motors simple for reliability and ease of fixing in a bad situation so I assumed this bike would get spark from the coils without a battery but it appears it won't...
New battery on the way, but in the meantime how to I test these coils for continuity with my multimeter? Or what should be the proper chain of events for diagnosing the no spark? Thanks!!

[LightningAndStarfire]

Without battery or capacitor you probably wont have any sparks. If you want to try before the new battery arrives an attached old school battery charger could do the trick.
Coils should read 3-4 ohms on the primary circuit.
The condensors could be murky, the capacitance could be measured of course but doesnt mean they necessarily are ok.

The zener diode is only for not overcharging the battery. Run with headlight on and in my humble opinion you dont need it.

[Fwmurphy88]

So I tried a smaller battery out of a quad and I had some sparking at terminals before I tightened it down...the main lead seemed to get hot and I still wasn't getting spark...I should note that there was no longer any sparking when removing the battery...
the main lead goes directly to the ammeter and the reading was at 12+...continuity at ammeter is .3
I am unfamiliar with these coils..there are two posts with two wire terminals on eaxh and then the wire for the plug goes into the middle...which is primary? I would assume it's the post that connects with the contact breaker? But where do I want to test continuity to and from?
Sorry!!! There are also these plastic butt joint like fasteners that connect each contact wire to a coil...are those fuses? They look like wire nuts to me but they have .3 continuity!! I've never seen anything like this before so once I get it down I'm going to be thrilled...there's not a lot of info out there besides these forums and mostly people are making cases for electronic ignition or not...

[Fwmurphy88]

Update: from the primary to the casing each coil has 5.5-5.6 ohms...

[Steve.S]

As already said, you won't get a spark without a battery, unless you have a capacitor, which is a big blue thing mounted on a spring, but I don't think A65's had them.
The battery should be fitted with Positive to earth.
It seems you have a short circuit somewhere, and your ammeter is connected the wrong way round and reading Plus instead of Negative. Hence the wire getting hot, which it shouldn't. However, the coil will get hot if you leave the ignition switched on for a long time with the points closed.   Maybe your Quad battery is discharged and NFG? I imagine if you fitted a good fully charged battery, the motorcycle would catch fire.
The reason it sparked when you connected the battery is that something was switched on, or as I said, you have a short. Maybe there is a hidden fuse somewhere, which then blew, hence no sparking when you disconnected it?
Assuming you still have points ignition, the +ve terminal goes to the points, and the -ve is the feed from the ignition switch, although the coil will produce a spark either way round. Ignore the second terminal on each post.
After a lay up, it would be well worth cleaning and gapping the points.
When you have sorted out your short circuit, if you switch the ignition on and turn the engine over very slowly, you should see the ammeter move slightly to minus and then back to zero. This will indicate the points are feeding the coil.
Are the butt joint things Bullet Connectors? A picture would help to identify.