Motor dies after startup.

Motor dies after startup.

Matthew, I typed this before I read your latest posts. I stand by what I wrote, but as you said: "What good is a spark if the valves won't move."
The answer, of course, is NONE! First things first, grasshopper.

mattmatthew said
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i figured, if any of the spark plugs weren't working, then if i pulled the wire, the bad plugs would be the ones that didn't produce a change in the sound. plugs 4 and 5 didn't give me any change in motor sound / vibration. maybe these are bad?

All good up to that test, and it's a good one. Good spark, but no change in engine with wires off - could just be a couple of fouled plugs. I'd change all six of 'em.

mattmatthew said
,,,and i shocked myself. heh. i know you're not supposed to do that but i figured it was a quick and easy way to see which cylinders may or may not be firing.

Like that old Hank Williams song ... "I saw the light - I saw the light...."

mattmatthew said
...i don't have a vacuum tester (perhaps i should get one) but i pulled the hose at the vacuum advance side to see if it was drawing any air (to make sure i had it hooked up to the right carb inlet). it didn't feel like anything was sucking so i moved the hose onto one that was that wasn't being used for anything.

Vacuum pump is mighty handy and can be used for bleeding brakes, too. But you won't really use it very much. I usually just do the suck test, 'cause I'm right there and the vac pump is not. (don't suck on a gas hose, though! That gets nasty real quick. Don't ask me how I know this!) The vacuum port you said was "not being used for anything" ... I hope it had a cap on it! With the engine idling you should have vacuum at one port and not the other. The one with the vacuum is the "manifold vacuum", and needs to be capped if not used. If that port does have a hose on it, I would just cap it off and address it after we get the idle and power situation fixed. The port with NO vacuum at idle should begin to pull vacuum as you open the throttle. That is "ported vacuum" and it goes to the distributor advance mechanism. Be sure that hose (and all hoses) do not leak, and if it does NOT pull vacuum when you open the throttle I'd bet you've found the problem.

BC