Thanks to the help from a few good friend, my 81 is now running again.
This was the one that started the nightmare I'm in the middle of now. It was running fine until we tried to fix the starter clutch and it never ran again. Then I got the 79 and most of you know how that was working out for me.
Compression was all over the map so the first thing we did was put it back together and set the timing. Then checked the compression which was low but at least it was even across the bike.... but it was still only 70 PSI. Used some cleaner, let it soak, put some oil down the holes and checked again. Up to 85 across the board. Hmmm still really low.
Wouldn't start. Backfiring at both ends. The timing was still off somehow. Used a timing light and checked under the inspection cover and it was on.... but Dave though it must be out of phase somehow. He thought that maybe the disc with the holes (I don't know the name of it) was somehow put on out of phase. The manual really doesn't explain this part. So we started swapping coil wires and it almost started. Swapped the coil wires to another combo and bam it started instantly. Ran like a top.
I think I'm going to pull the motor and sell it with the ignitor on Ebay to hopefully recover some of the money I've been losing on this little adventure. I'll post a video of the motor running as proof it starts and runs so we know its a good ignitor, the engine runs, and it doesn't smoke like a train. I'll keep the rest of the bike for parts for my 79 since most of the parts are a straight swap.