electronic ignition

I have a 68 318 barracuda. I got the thing in pieces and finally got the motor in and tried to start it up. I have a very messed up looking wiring system on it that has been put together by someone else. The coil sparks and the plug wires are new. The spark gets to the plugs with lots of fire when I set the distributer at # 1, for instance, but when I crank it over it does not spark at the plugs at all. Is there something wrong with the distributer? Even if I run the hot to the coil directly to the coil and use cross it at the soleniod to crank it... nothing goes to the plugs when its turning over.... help