I found out I have a bad pickup coil in my 89 D100, 5.2l so I went to look it up in my book but it shows single and dual type. My question is, how can I find out which it is without having to walk through the three feet of snow to take my distributor cap off?

 

The distributor will have either one or two dual wire connectors coming out of it. One connector = one pick-up coil and two connectors = dual pick-up coils. Now that I have answered your question save yourself the trip because your truck doesn't have pick-up coils. You have a Hall Effect switch instead and there is only one in the distributor.