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 - 12-Volt Conversions for 4-Cylinder Ford 2000 & 4000 Tractors - by Tommy Duvall. After two summers of having to park my old 1964 model 4000 gas 4 cyl. on a hill just in case the 6 volt system, for whatever reason, would not crank her, I decided to try the 12 volt conversion. After some research of convert or not, I decided to go ahead, the main reason being that this tractor was a working tractor, not a show tractor (yet). I did keep everything I replaced for the day I do want to restore her to showroom condition.
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