There is different resistances between the various terminals. If you google you can find these resistances for your specific coil.

Basically, you can take the condensor OUT of the circuit and then test for a spark.
If you get no spark with the condensor removed, the armature is bad.
Condensors fail in 2 ways.
They can short out, in which case it will kill the spark made by the coil and the plug will not spark.
They can go open, in which case you will experience very short life of the ignition contact points.
You need to give the kill wire a really close inspection (if there is one) to make certain it has not grounded out.

I already tested the condensor and double checked testing the new condensor is ok.
if i test resistance from the wire going to the points to ground, i get a short (with points open of course).
I assume this is NOT normal...
The manual has part 398811 as the replacement with 395326 as the Magnatron replacement.
If i replace the magnatron, do i need a different flywheel key??

I'm assuming that you have an OLD Briggs 23 with an external point box. Or do you have something different? I didn't think you could use the modern coil on these.

I took at look at it tonight and got it to work - out of spec, but it works.
While i didn't have my feeler gauge at the time, i closed the gap some and played with the flywheel and got a spark. I tweaked it some more and it actually ran on the first pull!

Being the thread of the set screw is stripped, i hope the epoxy i put on holds it in place.

Thanks for everyone's help.