My son picked up a 62 New Yorker with an original 413, but we can't get the darned thing to run! We bought the car from the last guy, not running.

The starter cranks the motor over just fine. We pulled all the plugs (they looked OK, just old.) We have installed new Autolight plugs gaped at .035.

We have put about 3 shots of oil into 5 of the 8 cylinders (we couldn't get the oil can contorted enough to get to the other 3 cylinders. I have a hand held compression gauge, and we have a consistent 80 lbs compression on 4 bumps on the 5 cylinders we can get the compression checker in. The other cylinders have enough compression to blow your thumb off the hole by cranking the motor. We can also feel our finger being pulled into the cylinders as the motor is cranked over, just before compression.

The car still has the single point ignition. The points are high quality points (not china crap) and look like they are fairly new, and are properly set. We are getting a spark out of the coil by cranking the motor over, and we get a spark from the coil every time we manually open the points. With the cap and rotor on, we are getting spark at the plugs. I have an old plug we ground with a jumper lead, connect to a plug wire on the motor and visibly see spark across the gap on 3 of 3 different wires we have checked, we have no reason to believe the other 5 won't have the same result.

We bump several cylinders up on compression and the rotor points to the correct plug terminal on the cap. The dist is stuck in the block, it hasn't moved in a long time. With the combination of decent compression, the ability to feel our fingers being sucked into the cylinder as it is cranked over, and the non-movable dist pointing at the correct terminal every time, we believe the timing chain is OK. The odometer shows 98045 miles, which appears to be correct, there are oil change stickers on the door indicating oil changes at 92xxx miles and at what looks like 90xxx miles.

We have spark, at the cylinders, and at the time of compression.

We have dumped gas down the carb, but don't even get a pop. The gas is fresh, and will burn when splashed out and lit with a lighter. We pulled off the carb, (it originally had fuel in it that smelled a bit old) (carb is an AFB) and cleaned out all the passages. We have pulled the fuel tank, had it boiled out, and replaced the fuel filter and all the rubber hoses. We have fresh fuel in the tank, and again in the carb (this was what we did the burn test with).

Still not even a pop.

I advanced the plug wires around the cap, dumped some fuel down the carb, and cranked it over and it would kick back against the starter on about every cylinder, but when we returned the wires to the people location, just crank, nothing else. When I retarded the wires around the cap, it would pop through the carb. Wires in the proper location, nothing. Dump lots of gas down the carb and I have wet plugs that still will spark when pulled out of the motor, and grounded.

Its driving me nuts guys, what am I missing?

The car has a complete exhaust system on it, (looks like a new OEM style muffler and tail pipe, both shiny steel, with a very nice but small single exhaust.) Is it possible the exhaust is plugged up and not letting the motor run?
I'm pulling what little hair I have left out! Gene