You have to choke it till wet. check for pin holes or slits in the fuel line. If you can, borrow an electric starter. the first time we started mine we borrowed another field box, made a jumper out of the plugd on my spare glow starter by cutting them off and twisting the stripped ends together. then we jumpered his black to my red and plugged my sullivan dynatron into his red and my black. the engine fired right up. after the first start and run for a minute it started easy every time. we went through the exact thing you did till we put the electric starter on it. You do not need a gear reduction for the spe40. any 12/24volt glow starter will work. you just need 24v for power. I bought a box that holds two of the little 7amp rc batteries and use it for everything now. even still use the jumper made that first day. just put shrink tube over the twisted joint in the middle. It is easier if you get a 2" spinner from valleyviewrc.com and drill the cone out to 10-32 (drill the 10 first then a little larger for the screw head) and the plate to fit in front of the prop with the prop washer in front of the plate and then the bolt. it is already drilled 10-32. here is a pic.