I was raking hay when the tractor quit. I knew the key switch was going out, it kept shutting down and wiggling the key would bring the ignition back alive. I started making trips to the local farm supply store for parts. I wired in a new switch, it cranks but doesn't fire up. I've replaced the coil, points, condenser, button and distributor cap. Next, using a light tester and then multimeter, I've verified 12.5 volts going through the coil and hot side of the points. Still no spark jumping through the points. I've pulled the new points and verified continuity going through the points when they are closed. I even tested the old points, that were about a year old for continuity. Both show good. I even went back to my farm and pulled the new points and condenser out of my 641 tractor (after I cranked it and verified it was sparking good). Even after installing them, still no spark on the 801. I had the owner of the field that I was "helping" him with go over what I did. You figure a Ford dealer mechanic for over 20 would catch what I'm doing wrong. Still no luck. I even got help for the local garage mechanic (50 year plus...). Nada... I was able to borrow a friend's JD4020 to finish raking and baling that field, and will use it to fining my five acres tomorrow.
Now that I've had time to slow down and put my thoughts in order I figure that someone out here can point me in the right direction. The 801 has the 12 volt alternator conversation. I've had it for about four years so far without and major problems.
Any ideas? Russ, in Kansas...

Got it running. Found two problems. The first was an intermittent grounding of The wire going into the distributor. The second was harder, the battery. Even though it cranked the engine at a normal speed and still showed 12.3 volts, it failed the test when I took it back to Auto Zone. I still am not seeing any spark jumping on the points, but since it's just to break the circuit I put it all together and it fired up. Thanks for all the help and ideas. Getting the battery out and in is the hardest task since I have a loader on the tractor.

Any time you have problems with point ignition,be informed new parts are not reliable. To free up your hands and better visability, I highly recommend "oem in line ignition spark tester #25227"from AutoZone. Use it instead of holding wires and watching for spark. Best $10 you will spend.

You will have better luck testing for voltage than for continuity. Don't accuse any electrical part of being no good unless you can verify that it is getting current but not doing what it should.

Your problem is where the small wire enters your distributor body. Either the insulator is gone or the little copper strip inside is broken.

Someone here said dont throw parts at it till you find the problem. You can check for fire from the battery to the coil with a test light. If you got fire to the coil, you can use a plastic stick or something (you can use a screwdriver, even your fingers, but be careful what you touch, sparks fly wherever you ground the screwdriver) to just push the points open. Hold the coil wire to ground and manually open the points, you should have a fat blue spark jumping from the coil wire to ground. Someone said you can use something like a matchbook cover to slide between the gap to clean them. You should check your centrifugal advance and side to side play of the distributor shaft. I think a lot of people forget to oil them regularly.