Bad Starter?

A trick I’ve used is to disassemble the solenoid, clean and rotate the power feed stud 180 degrees, and lightly sand the contact disc. As long as the disc and stud are not eroded too much this can get you by for quite a while. Replacement of course is best.
I used to rebuild the starter too. New bushings, brushes, etc. even had access to a growler at worked. I miss being able to service this stuff vs. just replacement.

 

To bring some closure to this, I got the Jeep starting really good. just pull the choke, turn the key and it fires up in less than a second. No need to pump the gas at all.

part of the issue is that I had been tuning my carb using info from websites with incomplete information. Now that I know a bit more about these carbs, some of those websites seem to make assumptions that the reader already knows the basics (which I clearly do not, lol). I eventually stumbled upon some “uncle Tony’s garage” YouTube videos that were extremely helpful, especially one of his videos about adjusting the choke.

I also did a lot of the basics suggested by you guys - cleaned all the contacts on the battery cables and starter and tuned the carb using a vac gauge. Getting a reading of about 22. Not sure what these 198 motors should be reading, but 22 seems pretty good based on what I’ve read online.

one thing i am having trouble finding is the correct ignition timing for the 198. It seems to be running really well, but as one of you suggested I’d like to make sure I didn’t adjust the carb to mask incorrect timing. Does anyone know the factory timing recommendations for a 198 oddfire?

 

The service manual says 5 degrees BTC.