[Mr.Fixit]

Well, you have cranking speed, and you have fuel. That makes me wonder about the spark. What kind of ignition do you have? Is it possible that the ballast resistor bypass wire is not bypassing he ballast reisitor to the coil during cranking? Just guessing now. But I would wonder about the spark now, since the cranking speed and fuel both seem to be fine. Lay a sparkplug wire on top of a valvecover and see if you get a good spark snapping.

Nantucket, the wood spacers are called "phenolic" and are good. They will not catch on fire. It's either that type, or the sandwich stack of aluminum plates and gaskets as a heat spacer. I prefer the phenolic type. If you ever do catch the top of your carb on fire due to a backfire or such, just crank the engine over and start it, the fire will get sucked into the motor and go out.