It's a heat sink and is needed for optimal TFI life. The TFI's were an issue on foxes (their critical temp was ~257*F and they would overheat, hence being relocated on 94-95's). The heat sink does what the name implies.
im not speaking about the black part that looks like it has jb weld on it. Thats the heat sink. I am talking about the actual bracket the tfi coil is bolted down on, which is also mounted to the power steering bracket. I remember something being connected to it, not sure if I need it.
Oh, you're talking about the ignition coil, not the TFI module. Gotcha.
I'm not totally sure on that - the metal part looks like a heat sink to me, and it's often attached with epoxy to the coil housing. They break free and the coil still seems to work ok (though perhaps a bit hotter than it would otherwise).
I'll bump ya for the guys whom have had the metal bracket break free from the ignition coil. They can tell you how it performed.
The only thing I had connected to my Coil bracket, besides the coil, was some sort of an interference capacitor. I think there was just one wire that was going to it.
I took that capacitor and wire off this year, and haven't noticed any bad effects.