http://www.harborfreight.com/flex-dr...ter-92697.html
Ten bucks. You can likely find a 20% off coupons, too.

As to piston rings loosening. I'd consider diesel or WD-40
which at least have some lubricating value.

Thanks for the correction: Spark plug gap .030 sounds right.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Jules Richardson" wrote
in message ...
On Wed, 05 May 2010 13:27:36 -0500, dpb wrote:
If you can use a thumb in the spark plug hole and keep it
from blowing
by, it's a good chance it is that bad...

Hmm, well it fails that test (or passes it, depending on how
you look at
it. I can keep my thumb there while it's turning over; I
can feel it
compressing, but it's not so much that I can't keep my thumb
in place.

I've only worked with big multi-cylinder engines before, so
messing with
the small single-cylinder stuff is a bit of a (fun!)
learning experience
- I'm not sure how good compression *should* be on such a
small engine,
but it sounds like this engine doesn't exactly have a lot
:-)

(unfortunately I do have a compression tester, but it's 4000
miles away,
which isn't much use right now! Maybe I should just cave and
buy another
one...)

cheers

Jules