What shorts out? The ignition? The distributor? Maybe a better question would be "How do you know it's shorted out?"
The distributor is supposed to ground that terminal, when the points are closed. If it's grounding the terminal even when the points are open then something is shorted inside the distributor. Check that the point wire is correctly assembled to the points (as above). If so, then take the wire off the points and see if the short disappears. Could be the condenser is shorted, they do that sometimes. Could be the wire has a bare spot.
But if you mean that the power to the coil goes away, then the problem is elsewhere, like a broken ballast wire inside the wiring harness.