Without knowing the tractor or what has been done to it over the years the symptoms you described sound like a failed ballast resistor.
The following applies to an engine with a 12 volt system which will usually have a ballast resistor installed before the coil.
There is a bypass circuit which will apply full battery voltage to the coil during cranking to make up for the voltage drop caused by the starter motor.
When the ignition switch is not in the cranking position power is fed through the ballast resistor to the coil to extend the life of your ignition components.
If it is running as long as you are holding it in the crank position it would indicate the bypass circuit is working properly.
The fact that it runs with a power wire direct to the coil also indicates there is no power being supplied to the coil from the ballast resistor.
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Today's Featured Article - Memories of a Farmall C - by Monty Bradley. When I was a child, my grandparents lived on a farm owned by a Mr. Walters. The crops raised were cotton and soybeans, with about forty head of mixed breed cattle. Mr. Walters owned two tractors then. A Farmall 300 on gasoline and a Farmall C, that had once belonged to his father-in-law, and had been converted from gasoline to LP Gas. Many times, as a small boy, I would cross the fence behind the house my grandparents lived in and walk down the turn row to where granddaddy would be cultivati
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