Engines were running before the tuneup....
New points gap triple checked even tested selenoid for a spark
That sounds wrong. This is why I asked you if you checked your dwell. You need to do it with a dwell meter. You can check it by just cranking. The wire from the coil should only make contact with the moving side of the points. The fixed side gets grounded by the hold down screw to the distributor plate. Might want to take a picture and show us what you did.u-shaped connector on the end was placed over both the point tabs. Is there a certain way those tabs are supposed to sit on the post.