Went through the ignition and carb again today.
I noticed that the throttle plate was a little wonky
on the shaft, and not shutting tight in the bore
between the two little low speed circuit fuel feeds.
Some re-adjusting and a touch of loc-Tite seemed to
improve the fit.

I’m not sure I’ve seen a throttle plate / butterfly, that
doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the bore.
Is this original on the AJ40A carb?

Also noted that the low-speed jet tube didn’t have one
of those little red fiber washers on it. I’m not sure if
it’s supposed to on this carb, but I added one.

The carb bore in the block isn’t round, and is slightly
bigger that the round bore in the carb, which seems
stupid to me, not to mention a quandary when making
a new gasket!

I put the magneto back on, and went to sync the points
with my buzz box and a TDC dial indicator.
The bottom cylinder set of points was not making good
contact to “set off” my buzz box.
I re-worked the points trying to get the two “point halves”
to close squarely, but only slightly improved them.
The were only making a tiny contact area, and slightly
etched in that area.
Will have to see if I can get some new ones.
The points in it are REPCO brand, so I presume not original?

The after-market OMC coils and condensers I used, had huge
terminal ends on them, making a good connection to the point
sets a challenge. I should have done this the first time, but I
removed said terminals and soldered some dainty ones on.

I only put back together necessities needed to make it actually run,
in case it still won’t idle or keeps dropping a cylinder.
I haven’t got around to looking at the rattle-trap rewind yet anyway.
Hopefully tomorrow some time I can barrel test again to see
if I made any improvements.

I have run it since the post. It did then idle and not drop a cylinder,
but the magneto would drift too far retarded and the engine would
die, unless I help onto the tiller grip.

Since then, I determine there was a wee bit of slop in the mag plate,
as it would rock slightly sideways. I made a .002 shim to add to the
others, and the slop went away. Also, I re-found the twist grip
tension screw on the bottom of the tiller elbow, so I’m hopeful
the mag plate would drift anymore.

I got different points today, so they are now installed. Hopefully
another barrel test today.

In my spare time, I’ve been working on tightening up the fit
of the rewind pawls where they pivot. The rewind was rattling
way too much for me. I ran a 7/16″ x 20 tap through the pivot
holes, which raised the metal a little, making a slightly tighter
fit. I then filled the threads in with JB Weld, then honed the holes
out to a nice fit on the pins. Also, I ordered some “spring” washers
to put under the pawls. “Hoping” it gets rid of the rattle for a while!