WD9 that sat too long

hello
my friend picked up his fathers tractors (WD9, SWDR9, 650) that had been sitting in a shed for 34 years, and now we are trying to get them to start.We are starting with the WD9 first. We drained out the old diesel out of the tank and drained the filters. We cleaned the carb and starting tank out as well. The butterflies are not stuck in the intake manifold to my knowledge because the rod moves. None of the valves are stuck but it dosnt look like the starting valves are closing completely. It is a magneto tractor and scratched in the paint on the side is 1243. I though the firing order was 1342. Am i wrong? There was a bunch of junk in the diesel lines so i figure i will have to clean the pump out. But we were trying to get it to atleast run on gas. I pulled the pipe from the air cleaner to the manifold off and it is wet in the manifold, but the plugs never get wet. I tried testing for spark with a tester and didnt see anything, but when i grabed the wires i get a jolt. Not a vary big one though. I can load it up with eather and still not get a bang. I am just about out of ideas with this one. Any help is appreitated. Thanks

Firing order is 1342, you are correct, but the magneto turns counterclockwise, so the spark plug wires should be arranged on the cap like this:

3 1
4 2

Often the cause of not starting on gas is that one or both butterfly valves is stuck partly open. I does not take much to prevent gas being pulled in on the starting cycle. Removing the intake manifold is not too big a job and also makes it easier to
remove and clean the carburetor. Maybe pull the wire out of the center tower of the distributor and see if you get spark there. Then try it again with the individual cylinders. After 34 years the spark plugs might be suspect.

I managed to blow up the air cleaner once when it backfired on either.

pretty much can bet that the points need attention. thats a given on something that sat for so long. hey, and throw that starting can in the bush, it will cause more damage than good. thats what the gas starting set up is for on these diesels.

Be carful with the eather, It is a good way to endup with bent valves. These engines are not ment to be eathered. Like the rest of the guys said points are generaly the problem. Just run a point file through them makes a big difference also new spark plugs realy help.

one thing to remember, when you do get it running and switch over to diesel and run it for a while never switch back to gas with out letting the tractor to set there and idle a little while to cool down. this prevents you from cracking the head cause the two different fuels burn at a different temperature and we dont want to see you ruin this fine tractor cause these heads are becoming extinct. good luck my friend

LOAD it up with ether? There is a scary thought.

(quoted from post at 12:05:32 06/11/11) LOAD it up with ether? There is a scary thought.

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Glad someone finally got ether spelled right

its a magneto tractor. No points

Yes a magneto has points in it scary Ethan u dont know that maybe u should hand the tractor to a mechanic and let a person with knowledge get it running

what you talkin about???, no points.