VL Berlina Nissan 3litre: do coils go bad after no use for too long?

[Novice on VL]

Hi, I have a VL Berlina Nissan 3litre, left it standing for 3 weeks, would not start when jump started. It was running rough 5 weeks ago, brushing up dissy contacts got it sounding like from 3 to 4 cylinders, then spraying WD40 inside dissy got it back to firing on all 6. So I assumed the dissy cap was at fault, bought another one+ rotor button. Still cranking over nice but no firing sounds. Checked for spark, none off plug 6, then none off coil lead when trying to earth to body or using tester light. Power going into coil lit up when cranking over, so I went to a local wrecker, bought a coil for $20, same deal: No light when testing on dissy side of coil, nor spark on plug earthed onto fuel injection/ inlet manifold, but light showing power should be going into coil.
Question: do coils go bad after sitting around too long?
Or does something else in system recognise when coil is plugged in and refuse to send a signal?
Am I wasting money testing further buying a new coil?
Thanks
Chris

[delcowizzid]

could be the sensor inside the dizzy they fail a lot its a hall effect sensor/crank angle sensor

[Tree cutter]

Could be the crank angle sensor in the distributor. The wires break at the plug that goes into the distributor as well so give them a wriggle and see if it starts. You can still buy new plugs and terminals that you solder in if this is the problem.

[detox_nath83]

yeah sounds like CAS mate, as stated above as well as check for corrosion in the plug and under the rubber boot for broken or corroded wires come off the back of the spade connectors.
if all seems well and u have tried another CAS try the Power Transistor(PT) that is the small transistor on the front of the dizzy with a "T" plug on it 2 wires. u can check these on the car as well basically it switches to coil to spark.
but i would try another CAS first.