I was able to get my Ryobi up and running by doing two things:

1)I used a pair of 8Cell Nicad packs in series from an old ZAGI (finally found a use for them) to power up my el cheapo hobbico HD starter. Since my spinner is 3" and the hobbico is for much smaller spinners I placed a 1" piece of a garbage disposal rubber pipe ($3 at home depot) and clamped it to the outside of the starter's cone. That slips over the spinner nicely.

2) I also ever so slightly loosened the spark plug. The engine started up on the first try. After letting it warm up for a minute, I killed the motor and tightened up the plug and restarted the motor.

My high and low end valves were both out 1.5 turns.

At this point, I'm going to play with this beast and run some gas through it and get it ready for my big pink.

Thanks for everyone's help.
SB