WD hard start/poor response

Here's the deal,I have a 1950 model, still has a mag and ran extremely good up till last summer while raking hay. It would cut out and then die while idling and then was real hard to get started. If the RPMs where up it ran fine. As time went on it got to the point if you let the clutch out and the governor opened up it would cut out and possibly die. I took off carb and cleaned it out and put a kit in it which didn't help. Next checked mag,coil had a crack so I took it off and replaced it. Lined up the "F"fire mark on compression stroke and the mark on mag to number 1. Now it would only start if throttle lever was all the way in closed position and it took several tries,it would pop but didn't really want to take off, you had to time it just right and open the throttle after initial pop and hopefully it would come alive. It still had the hesitation when the governor would open up if you dumped the clutch or what not and now I can't get it to pop at all. As soon as you start cranking it over it starts smoking out the exhaust Like its flooded. Open the throttle while cranking and smoke goes away, close it and smoke comes back. Ive tried starting it with gas shut off but put enough in the carb that it should starts and have the same results. I play with it once and a while when I'm at the farm but this has been going on for a year now so I'm looking for some advice. It was over the winter I pulled the mag and early this spring when it just would start.

Ive done that, even put a carb from another WD on it. Didn't help.

Nope,you can take the fuel line off the carb and it runs out, I drained a gallon out just to make sure it wasnt vapor locking. I'm wondering if I'm not 1 tooth off with the mags rotor. The marks are gone.

I had planned on putting a timing light on it but now that it won't start that won't do me any good.

Here's a link that may help if your problem is in the mag.

I recently went through the same thing with my 39 non-electric B with a WICO mag, which meant using the crank or towing it. It would fire and run when towing it, but as soon as I pushed the clutch, it would quit. The mag timing (inside the mag) was off.

I am not a mag guy, but this sounds a lot like timing to me. You have gas, you have spark, and you must have compression. And sounds like it did run, but not so good. So I would guess that it is the timing also. Good guy to contact is DonMO. He could talk you through it setting up the mag timing. I guess you could have a bad mag too. They are rebuild-able and several guys are able to do that. When I switched from Mag to Distributor on the last WD, I had the mag apart. Had it tested to be a hot (good spark) mag. But chose to put the money into setting up a distributor instead. Parts for the mag would have been $150 or so.
Good luck in finding and resolving your WD issues.
I haven't regretted moving away from the mag. I know they work great when they work, we used them for years. I just like the distributor better.
Regards,
Chris