Well, I was slating compression tests anyway to see if the rust had done any serious damage to parts I could not see from the bottom. The plugs and wires were all new and just installed when my father walked over. There was visible spark at the distributor wire, but since I was running out the door, we never tested at the plug. Heck, it is possible that I did not seat the wire properly when I put it on.
Someone did mention valve lash, possibly you. I did read up on it, but never got around to it. More than likely, they need to be adjusted. Thank you for the reminder, I will add that to my short term project list and cycle back to it. I also need to do a real carb rebuild in the near future. I think I just needed the psychological win of having the motor running and the truck moving under it's own power, which is why I diverted mentally to fuel and brakes.
Still enjoying these posts, Dave.
Not that doing a compression test is any "trouble." But before you go that far, are you certain that #3 has spark? A quick grounding of the plug and spinning the motor might save you some "trouble" and lead to a simpler solution. Might have bad plug wire or even a bad plug.
Can't remember if you ever talked about checking/setting valve lash. That might be another easy check worth doing.
