1250 Cub Cadet- No Fire, Even Via Straight Wire

[AppalachianMachine]

Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it...

I purchased a 1250 Cub Cadet for the 1A tiller on the back. The little tractor seemed to be in excellent condition, so I decided to try to get it running.

Even with a fresh battery and sitting on it, the key would not start the Cub. When I say start it, I mean it would not even turn over or click.

So today, I made sure the starter was functional. It is.

I jumped it directly from the battery to the starter, the start is fine.

Having done that, I went and bought a new condenser(closest I could get was a 6cyl Chevy interchange condenser), a new coil, new 216 Autolite plug, and I cleaned the points(which were newer factory Kohler and looked ok after Scotchbrite.

I then put on the coil and condenser, and checked out the points to make sure they were opening, all was copacetic.

With that done, I ran a lead from the hot on the battery to (+) position on the coil, I also had the wires from the tractor hooked to the coil. The points and coil were hooked to the (-) terminal, and I ran a lead from them to the negative terminal on the battery.

I then jumped off the starter directly from the battery(ie the battery was hooked straight to the starter and not to the wiring harness).

No love. The engine turned over great, but there was clearly no sound of combustion or popping off.

While turning it over, I checked the timing.

Can I not get away with straight wiring the engine to battery to try to test it ? Was my mistake using the factory wiring harness when I didn't have the battery plugged into it ? Should I have run a wire from the (-) post/condenser on the coil directly to the points and another directly to the battery ?

Any other thoughts or advice at this time ?