Jim,

I think the easiest thing for you to do would be to set the points with a feeler gauge, stick the system back together and make sure you have power to the key side of the coil, then attempt to start the truck as you hold a plug wire near a good engine ground. Hold it about 1/4" off of ground and look and listen for a nice crackling spark.

If you have a meter, your readings from coil + to ground should be around 9 volts if you have ballast resistor in the circuit. This reading is with the key on, engine stopped. The voltage from coil - to ground with the points OPEN should be about the same. When the points open, this reading should drop to ZERO.

It almost sounds like you are getting lost in "diagnosis land". If you manually set the points correctly, then do the spark plug ZAP test, you will quickly know if you have power to the plugs.

Your jury-rigged ignition switch might have you wired wrong...is that possible?

Stuart