i have a 72 duster as well with a 383 in it with points,beside the dart i have.in order for it to start i have to run a hotwire from the postive side of the coil to postive side of battery.i have replaced the ignition switch and starter rely.I still have to run a hot wire in order to shut it on/off. any ideas what it could be still?

Bad ballast perhaps. Poor connection at the bulkhead or ??

AMMETER, or connections to or from, BTDT

it will crank OK but will not start until you jump directly from batt to coil? I would check the cranking voltage at the coil positive primary terminal with and without the jumper (& post what you get). do minimal cranking time for each check so the battery possibly getting run down a bit dont skew the readings. I would clean every terminal/connection from the battery in thru the bulkhead/to/thru ammeter/to ign sw (its connector) and the brown wire ign2 (cranking) circuit from the "ign2" ign sw terminal back out thru bulkhead & on to the coil positive primary to elim the voltage drop

only other culprit I can think of is a blown fusible link

TJP neither one of those will cause his problem. Those will cause a no crank not a no start.

Still have not heard if ballast was checked. Does OP have the 2 or 4 prong ballast?

Actually when cranking the eng the ballast is bypassed anyway. It sounds like a wireing problem if you already put a new ign switch in it. Check for voltage at the coil + while cranking. I you dont have volts there when cranking trace it back to the ign 2 terminal on the ign switch. Ron

Check the female holes in the ignition switch to dash wiring connector. Suspect that you will find one or more has enlarged so that the male's from the ignition switch are wallering about in the females on the dash harness side and not making solid contact. .

With a very small bladed(like watch builder or eyeglasses size) screwdriver you can squeeze them a bit tighter, ensuring a tight fit. .

You should check and tighten all 5 of the larger gauge ones, blue, black, red, yellow and brown.

If not the problem this time, likely could be in the future. This is a miserable example of a Molex connector, as each time you separate it and reattach it, these holes will enlarge.

its a 2prong resistor, and i will look and see if they are and check wires.ill check the voltage as well,the coil is brand new as well.

check the cranking voltage at the coil positive primary terminal then check it (same way) at the downstream (brown wire) end of the ballast then stick a thin metal pin into the bulkhead & check that ign 2 circuit wire. with a jumper connect the neg lead of your VOM to the batt neg post & the red VOM lead on the (3) checks above. make each check brief/fast so as to not deplete the batt (wont hurt the batt but can skew the readings)