Can't get her to fire up

So I am getting the 55' ready to sell and she has not ran since last fall. I am getting fuel, I have spark but even with starting fluid i am getting nothing. She will turn over but that is it. The plugs looked pretty dirty so i took a wire brush to them and still nothing. Any ideas or should I just start over and start replacing things like plugs, wires, dist cap, etc.... Just to give some back ground she really hasn't been on the road much in the last three years, only started every now and then. I just haven't had the time to really mess with it with work and travel. Thanks guys, it has been awhile since I have been on here, it feels good to be back!

 

Full was about two years old but treated and I put about 5 gals of new treated in the tank.

 

and there is fuel at the venturis and spark at each plug yes..............

 

has spark but no bark with starting fluid . check compression

 

fuel is getting to carb and starting fluid is going into the carb as well. motor had perfect compression the last several years, i can check again

 

Just wondering how much of that fuel is water?

 

did rodents get to any of the wiring?

 

If it won't go with starting fluid then I'm leaning toward a weak spark at the plugs. Something should happen with ether if there is good fire at the cylinder.

 

Points often get oxidized during idle time and can act weird. Water or crud in the carb bowl can be another gremlin.

Good time to start systematically verifying the basics, A, B, C... Points, timing, plugs, etc. Bring everything to spec, reduce the unknowns - before you go crazy just guessing.

Elementary tune-up can't hurt and would be totally appropriate given the history.

 

Thanks for the responses gang! I am starting simple, new points/condenser/plugs and carb rebuild. I will let you guys know how it goes from there

 

So after remembering i put pertronix in the dist two years ago, i swapped out the cap/rotor/plugs with no change. put in a spare coil and Bang! she fired. Now i am trying to get the solex to smooth out. she runs but on acceleration it sputters with out throttle toggle (that's what i call feathering the gas). she smooths out at higher RPM's but does not idle like she did last summer which was smooth at silk. I need to research solex adjustment again i think

 

I did not rrebuild the carb but did take it off and soaked it with carb clean then blew air through everything. the carb prob only has 50 miles on it since new two years ago

 

I can not seem to get her to smooth out at all. Any thoughts here guys? Maybe I do need to rebuild the carb after all, but everything looked real clean when i took it apart and cleaned it

 

I would pump out all that old gas and start fresh without stabilizer. It might not be the issue but im sure its not helping

 

Soooooo, blew all the fuel lines out, replaced the fuel filter again and we are much much better. I still have a horrible off idle stumble that only clears after I burp the gas a ton to get on the other side of it, then it smooths right out and runs fine. I took it around the block to discover I have ZERO brakes (that was fun). She idles fine now and other than the off idle thing I am getting happier with it. I think I have a plug wire that has a loose connection on the plug end so I will replace that tomorrow. I need to find out what happened to the brakes, so that is next before she goes on the market. Thanks guys for all the help and ideas, we are almost back to where I was last year.