Seed truck??

Ok men (and 2-3 women) it's time to really get it running!
Here's what I know: the owner said it ran and drove fine. He pulled the battery out to charge it and someone stole it. Let a couple of young 20 year old kids try and get it started. I bring a battery look and the distributor cap has a one-inch window broken out of it. I taped it up, I got it to run for just a few seconds and then it started sputtering as if it was only hitting on half cylinders and then done. I said I'll buy it. I just figured the distributor cap was messed up. So I bring out a used small block distributor cap I had laying around and switched it out figuring this might started so I can drive it up onto the trailer. No go. Right away a check for power at the negative side of the coil and didn't get anything. I pulled the number one spark plug to see if I was getting spark and nothing. then I go check the coil again and now it has power? Side note when I pulled that spark plug out it was black and fouled and the Gap was visually not even half what it should be. I cleaned and recapped. Anyways this time when I got power to the coil I tried cranking it and got spark and it tried to fire the truck. So quickly I put the plug back in and give her a little shot of starter fluid and it starts and idles smoothly wants to die after a second or two. It never restarts properly. So I come the next day to pick it up and again put a used cap on it and not getting power to the coil. I try and jump wire from the negative side of the coil to positive and still nothing. I go for pulling a number one spark plug to check for spark and sure enough the damn thing fires up again? (Second time that happened?) So I quickly put the number one spark plug back in and get it to again idle for a few seconds and nothing again. I gave up and we just ratcheted it up on to the trailer. actually it's still on the trailer and I'd like to get it running and drive it off. I won't be able to get off the trailer and position it correctly in my driveway if I don't. the plan is to go down to the store first thing and buy a set of Champion spark plugs a rotor and a cap and a ballast resistor. some other things I noticed when I pulled the headlight switch it didn't turn on or actually my buddy did he possibly didn't pull or twist the right knob either. The blinkers seem to work or at least I heard them clicking. Also it has dual tanks and the owner and again he just had it for a short time he inherited it from a cousin that had passed. He didn't know where the dual tank switch was and I haven't had enough time yet to find it myself as I've been just trying to basically see if it'll run and get home. Oh yeah check for rust was my big thing.
So please stay tuned as likely I'm going to need some pointers. Thank you...