While poking around under the hood I noticed the wire between the condenser and the coil was broken. Doesn't the 78 DL have breaker less ignition? How does the condenser affecthe ignition without points?

Pretty sure a 78 dl would have had breaker points as standard. Maybe someone has upgraded to breakerless since then and not bothered to ditch the condenser.

 

Have a look under the dizzy cap and see.

 

That said if it is still breaker points then the engine would not run without the condenser connected.

I'm not sure. Electronic ignition started showing up in the early 1970's, Pop the cap and tell us what you find.

Checked under the cap and it has points. The Haynes manual gave the impression that it would be breakerless, maybe some other model from that year.

 

I did a little research on condensers and found that they basically keep the points from burning up from too high a current. Guess I should put a new one in before the points burn out.

Yes, and replace the points