It's hard to tell from the pictures.
You said "I went back and wired the heaters per schematic, high side to .68 ohms to pin 7 of one tube. I wired from pin 7 to other .68 ohm and left the resister to pin 2 of other 6550."
This is a little confusing. forget about pin 2 and pin 7 being swapped. You can swap them or not.
One filament of one 6550 should be connected to the filament winding through a .68 ohm resistor. The other filament of the other 6550 should also be connected to the filament winding through a .68 ohm resistor with nothing in series.
pay no attention to the type of tube in the drawing. That's the only tube symbol of a tube that showed the heater connections I could find.
If it doesn't work with one side grounded then you have a shorted (to ground) heater winding.
Tre'
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