Air+Fuel+Spark+Compression= no start

Ok, so heres the whole story: My jeep, (56 cj5 f134 carter), has started and run flawlessly for well over a year. Despite anything else that may have gone wrong with it, it always ran, -25 degrees, or 95 degrees out, it started, and ran......so.....I am warming it up and loading a couple things in the back of it when it suddenly dies. Seemed electrical, (no chugging, or other fuel related sounds). Killed the battery trying to start it, realized that my ignition wire from the ignition switch to the coil was not properly connected. Hooked it up, jumped it, it ran great. I was low on gas so I went to the gas station, and apparently hadn't given it enough time to charge the battery because it was dead again. So after a long night of attempted push starting, and getting really angry, my wife showed up and gave me a jump again......only this time, it wont start. It will start to start. It fires on one or two cylinders, and blows smoke out the tail pipe, but wont start. I have spark at: points, coil wire, and plugs. No oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, no oil on the plugs. My plugs were fouled and soaked in gas, so I replaced them. Still wont start. I thought maybe the pump diaphragm in the carb had given up, but it is intact, along with everything else in the carburetor. Re adjusted metering rod just to me sure....still nothing.....but here is the interesting part:
If I hold the starter button down, it will start to catch, and run, just so long as I hold the starter on.....as soon as I release it, it dies......I will be doing a compression test a little later today, (although I find it unlikely that I somehow lost compression with no other symptoms or fluids leaking into things). So, with spark, air, and fuel, it will not run.....any thoughts??????

 

Pull Plugs, turn it over to clear fuel, let it air out over night. Fresh plugs. Re-check ign switch wiring. Check battery connections, esp ground.

 

There is your answer. Your coil is only getting juice when starting. Run a jumper wire from battery to the + side of coil. If it runs you have no power from battery-key-resistor-coil. Test light is also a good way to find which wire maybe broken.

 

Thanks much, I will clear the fuel out of it and try the jumper, (its already been sitting in a gas station parking lot, 20 minutes from my house for two days, I don't know how much longer I have before it gets towed, so overnight is out of the question).
Thanks, and I hope this works....

 

Well...."always try the simplest thing first"....I guess we don't always manage to do this: So I decided to visually check the ignition circuit, (I hadn't realized prior to this that when the starter is engaged it bypasses the rest of the ignition circuit), and I came to the fuse box......two fuses were blown, and I bet you can guess what at least one of them was.......Key on, and ignition sys.......put in two new fuses, started right up, and runs fine....(after sever hours of trying to figure it out, dissecting the carb, replacing plugs, testing for spark, and fuel...etc......)
Thanks for the advice "IAGMC", and "SIDSCJ" I never would have made it to the fuse box without your suggestions.....