Thanks Brian,
the current interrupter hold the negative lead of the coil to ground preventing the coil from firing. I am getting error codes on the ECM complaining that the ignition circuit has a problem. Possibly a short. Go figure.

That is one reason I am trying to move away from that system. Would really be cool if the ECM had an input that would stumble the motor during a shift. But, alas, this is an old '299' from a truck that the guy says is optimized for a boat.