Hello to all this is my first time posting on the forum. I'm currently having an issue with my 351w rebuild I reused a distributor that a had on hand the issue being that after lots of reading in leaning on a bad distributor. Now I want to buy a new one but most of the new ones that I'm seeing have a magnetic pick up which is what I want but they are factory harness types. Now I've looked thru wiring diagrams online and I can't find what wire is what like which wire is ground which goes to coil and which goes to power. The distributors I'm looking at are for a 85 f150 351w motor. If anyone knows which wire goes to what it would be a huge help.

 

Not sure what you're doing here but you should have a "Duraspark" distributor. It has three wires that end in a single plug. The wire colors are orange, purple, and black. You shouldn't really need to know that because if it's original and stock, the plug simply connects to the harness that goes to the Duraspark control module. One will not work without being connected to a module, you can't wire it direct to the coil and such like an older points distributor.
Googling up a Duraspark wiring diagram brings lots of results because lots of folks (like me) have installed Duraspark setups in place of the old ignition points setup as an upgrade.

 

darn i knew i was going to forget to put one thing or another the reason for the question is because my current distributor is a points setup. my apologies

 

With points, there's only one wire, from the distributor to the "-" side of the coil. The "+" side of the coil goes back to the ignition switch, basically. An engine will run but crummily if you have the + and - terminals swapped on the coil. - goes to the distributor/points, always.