I want to thank you all for the incredible help. I was very happy to be able to work through this on Veteran's Day with my friend, who is significantly disabled from an IED in Iraq. We first went to the problem that was making it not even try with ether. First, the thumb test quickly showed no compression. We took the head off, and found the intake valve opening and closing very lazy. What did we have to lose? We used brake cleaner on it, and thoroughly cleaned the valve and seat from the top. Enough brake cleaner to run down to the tappets. Then we rotated it many times and the spring action got better and better until it was finally opening and closing normally. We put the head back on, gave it a shot of ether, and it started and ran well! Not perfectly, governor hunting, but good enough for him to get his hour of garden work done. We aren't looking forward to getting at those torx screws to get the carburetor off, when that time comes, but we've got all winter. Thanks again!
