Hi,
My friend has an old go-kart with a 60's or early 70's techumpsi engine on it, we replaced the points (gapped to .016) and the condenser which was junk so i took the one out of my car for now, so anyway i finally got spark... nothing wonderful but a fair blue arc jumping across the plug, nothing amazing... so anyway, then i put the whole damn thing back together and it still won't start, i pour gas in the carb and it will just put every now and then and backfire through the carb. so thats where i am... is my spark not hot enough? I though it might be the timing so i played around with that and i still can't get it much better. the magnets are clean and we even put a new coil on it... please help me before i loose my mind... i worked at a small engine shop for a year and i've NEVER EVER EVER had this much of a problem with any engine.

Thanks
RObert

As a guess I would say, someone has decided to adjust the timing for better performance by filing or removing the flywheel key and now you have a sheared or missing flywheel key which will create the no start condition. Have a good one. Geo

did you move the stator where the points and condensor connect, that unit is what makes the spark advance or retard, it would make it spit at the wrong time possible pull the rope out of your hand, if those that are going on post the model number and we can get the timming, hope this helps, good luck, Light Mechanic