Hi all,
Newbie here. This is my first project with an outboard of any kind, much less a 61 year old one.
Over the years I’ve worked on dozens of lawn mowers and tractors so I have a general knowledge of small one an two cylinder engines.
So I kinda know what I’m doing. In addition, I’ve spent many hours combing the web for forums and videos in an attempt to educate myself in this area. The knowledge I’ve acquired has been vital in getting things to where they are now.

I’ve kept a diary of my work and I’ve included a summary here:

After reading lots of forums and watching endless YT videos, I tried my best to educate myself into the workings of the motor. The one thing I really wanted to upgrade was the ignition. Someone had installed automotive plug wires which needed to go. I removed the flywheel and the magneto plate, tested the coils, points and condensers (which looked fairly new), all good.
I installed the new wires, locking them into the plate underneath, and new plugs.
In the meantime I removed the starter and the carb. I had seen a YT video that recommended you clean the carb and parts by boiling them in lemon juice. I gave it a try and they came out sparkling clean. I purchased a carb kit and installed a new float, needle valve, gaskets, etc. Note: I removed the remote choke and accompanying linkage because I am not going to use it. I reinstalled the carb, hooked up the linkage, and reinstalled the starter.

Next step: I saw a video on how to pinpoint when the points open by using a multimter. I understood the principle, but my meter is digital and I really wasn’t confident that I was doing it right. Plan B: I spoke to Richard White and he advised me to move the crank cam until the word “TOP” aligned with the points on the top and bottom cylinders. Maybe not exact, but close enough to run OK. In addition to that I adjusted the points to .20 on both using a blade feeler gauge. All done. I reinstalled the flywheel, all set.

I have a two line gas tank which I filled with fresh gas @ 24:1 mix. Used the pump to pressurize the tank. Hooked up the wires to run the starter. Filled the barrel with water.
Set the tiller handle to “start”. Set the choke, made sure the needle valves were set properly. I cranked that thing at least 30 different times without even a hint that it wanted to start. Not a puff, not a cough, a chug, a sputter: NOTHING! The only good news was that the starter motor worked great.

Needless to say I was really disheartened and frustrated. I know these are fairly simple engines: spark, fuel, compression and you should be good to go. Anyway, my mind started to go over everything and I decided to first start by re-checking the ignition.
Imagine my shock and surprise when I found that the terminal end from the coil wire had broken off from the screw on the points. ??? I removed the coil, re-trimmed the wire, crimped on a new terminal and re-installed it to the points terminal. While I had the flywheel off I re-checked the timing and the point gaps. OK. I put the flywheel on and tried it again: NOTHING!

I confirmed the worst by squirting fuel/oil mix into the carb while I cranked the motor. Still nothing. Just to be 100% sure I got out my gauge and line tested the compression.
I got 95 on both cylinders. Good, not great; but certainly good enough to run the engine.

So, here I am, pouring my heart out to you guys, perfect strangers, in the faint hope that I can find out what I’ve done or haven’t done to get this thing to run.

Is the timing so far off that it’s not sparking anywhere close to where its supposed to?
Does squirting gas in the carb let the carb off the hook as a symptom? I am at my wit’s end. I don’t think I will (or should) proceed without some guidance from someone who’s been down this road.

Any advice would be awesome. Thanks so much for listening.

Paul

As an aside to this madness . . . . .One quick thought about the ignition . . . in the process of setting up this motor I decided to add a killswitch directly from the magneto plate to the boat’s console. I have the leads hooked up to the points terminals on the mag. The wires are fed down through two holes I drilled in the mag plate and then fed down the sides of the motor and out through the original harness, which I have removed. It’s not hooked up to the boat yet, the wires are just hanging loose. CRAZY QUESTION: Even though the spark is generated by the coil and fed through the plug wires,is it possible that the spark that should be carried through the plug wires is being intercepted or sidetracked or "stolen" by the wires for the killswitch? Thus whatever spark that is getting to the plugs isn’t sufficient to ignite the fuel? Just trying to think outside the box, if there is a box.