Ignition puzzle

[John Cornforth]

Hi

It sounds as though a "spark" is being produced by the coil, but not getting through the HT side of the distributor.

Some possibilities:

Short to ground (or poor insulation/breakdown) within the rotor arm ?
Rotor arm correct shape for the rotation direction of the distributor ?

Also, what's the battery voltage ?

Edit: Ignore the bit about rotor arm shape, there's no "tail" to accommodate centrifugal advance for that era.