Thank you all for watching and commentating, it certainly helps in these 'dark' hours!
IT FIRED!
Yep, I kid you not, it actually went bang several times, though did not run.
MY PLUG IS WET!
Yep, miracles do happen on a wet Tuesday.
so, what have I done to get to this high level of restoration?
Not sure TBH. Stripped the engine down fully and built it back up. The kick start gear is drawn incorrectly on the factory diagram, so having fathomed out how the mechanism works I did a dry build, confirmed the assembly and simply screwed it all back together.
Decided to try and effect a better case seal and close off the scroll bearing on the magneto side using a stack=up of O rings. There is a 0.25/0.5 compression on these when the flywheel is on, so I hope (with some oil in them) to effect a better seal that might last. I oiled well the clutch side felt seal while the cases were apart.
Set the timing at 4mm BTDC (a Frenchman says it should be 5mm).
Popped the carb back on. Fuel in the bowl.
Gave the kick start some hard shoves and it felt/sounded different.
After some more enthusiastic shoves it started to fire and stopped. Rested my arm and repeated, and bang it went several times and even a trickle of about 6 ignitions then no more.
I have left the exhaust pipe off so I can hear any changes more accurately.
going to ry 5mm BTDC and see if that helps.
Anyway, a few steps forward. Maybe the bloody thing will stop fighting me now.