1988 16V .. no start. ideas?

[deadbolt at mindspring.com (Shad)]

Ok,...have an old neighbors car right now that has sat for sometime.  (longer than mine ) Jumped out the fuel pump.... both pumps "sound" like they are pumping.  Power at the correct terminals on the fuel pump relay... no ground on the small upper right terminal though. (shouldn't it have ground there?)   Also,... no spark.  that said, the plugs don't look great so I have that in mind.  Bentley is at buddys house for him to play with, so I'm going off of memory here... if I jump out a terminal on the knock sensor, won't the dizzy. spark so that I can verify all is good to that point?  Seems that I have a bad ignition module... but unsure at this point.   Seems that I lost ground on my cars fuel pump relay years ago and the ground fed through the knock sensor and into the ignition module or something like that.  Any help?
thanks
shad