Got my first T and having starting issues

[onthehunt]

I picked up a new-to-me '22 center door at an estate sale last weekend. It's a wonderful car - seems like a well preserved car that has an old repaint but is otherwise original.



Previous owner appears to have gone through the carb, gas tank is clean, old battery was dated 2009, oil is clean, etc. So I assumed it ran when parked 10 or 12 years ago.



But I cannot get it to fire for more than 3 or 4 revolutions at most.It just fires, sputters and dies. Every...single...time...




It has decent compression - will blow my thumb off the each plug hole and suck it back in. Fuel is clean, I pulled and cleaned the carb, it has fuel in the bowl, all 4 coils buzz on battery and plugs fire strong out of the motor (#3 is a little weak)...



It seems to want a lot of choke, and I can get it to pull enough fuel that the carb pukes gas, but the plugs are dry when I check them. I've tried every combination of choke, mixture and throttle.



Pulled the valve cover and there are no stuck valves, exhaust and muffler aren't plugged up. Inside of the motor looks very clean, surprisingly. Engine doesn't kick back and feels normal when I crank it.



What am I missing here? Do I have a timing issue? Low compression?


And to complicate things even further...it seems to have a few damaged teeth on the ring gear, so I hand cranked it on battery for most of the afternoon. I'm sore and PO'd now