See if you have spark while jumpering the start relay, with the key in "run". This will give you an indication of whether the bypass circuit is effected
Make absolutely certain the ECU is grounded. One way to do that is check coil NEG with key in run. Voltage should be quite low, the lower the better, perhaps less than 1 volt. If NEG side of coil is high, near battery, either the ECU is bad, or not grounded
If you have tach or radio condenser on the coil connections, disconnect everything except ECU
Another common trick is to "hot wire" a clip lead 12V right direct to coil PLUS
Don't forget coil could be bad. Coils don't need to be grounded, so you can just "throw one" on the engine and wire it up quickly.
As suggested wiggle the 'eck out of the dist. connector.
You should get some clip leads, will allow you to do so much more.
Clip to your meter and prop it up so you can see it, then you can check cranking voltage.
With a spark checker / gap, you can clip to that and look through the hood gap and see IT while you twist the key.
Put your meter in the dist connector and crank, meter on lo AC volts. Distributor should generate about 1V AC
Inspect the insides of the cap / rotor / reluctor. Look for strike damage to pickkup / reluctor, rust, debri, and moisture / dirt, etc in the cap and rotor. Look for "punch through" on the rotor and UNDER the rotor