Well, I finally got a chance to check my starter out today, and sure enough, the ground leads were loose and had been arcing. I got a replacement kit with brushes and replaced the bad brushes and leads. As soon as I put the starter back on the motor and cranked it, she fired right up!! It's kind of depressing though, because I've spent all summer trying to figure out why I had no spark, and all this time I just needed a $20 set of brushes for the starter. 
Thanks for all the helpful replies I got on my previous topic regarding this, especially the ones about the motor needing to crank fast enough to fire. I didn't really realize what it meant by an alternator driven ignition until now. Obviously, with an alternator driven ignition, it has to spin fast enough to make a charge. But I guess you learn something new everyday. About the only problem now is getting the carbs re-tuned. Does anyone have any suggestions on where would be a good starting point? It doesn't run too bad now, but it won't rev up very high, even with the throttle wide open. Also, it doesn't want to idle at all. I'm going to pull the carbs back off and clean them since it's been sitting all summer, and I've put in fresh gas, but does anyone know where I should have the mixture screws and such? Right now I think they are about 1 full turn out. Does this sound close? Again, I appreciate all the previous help and look forward to any ideas on this further topic. <br /><br />Thanks again,<br />John
Thanks for all the helpful replies I got on my previous topic regarding this, especially the ones about the motor needing to crank fast enough to fire. I didn't really realize what it meant by an alternator driven ignition until now. Obviously, with an alternator driven ignition, it has to spin fast enough to make a charge. But I guess you learn something new everyday. About the only problem now is getting the carbs re-tuned. Does anyone have any suggestions on where would be a good starting point? It doesn't run too bad now, but it won't rev up very high, even with the throttle wide open. Also, it doesn't want to idle at all. I'm going to pull the carbs back off and clean them since it's been sitting all summer, and I've put in fresh gas, but does anyone know where I should have the mixture screws and such? Right now I think they are about 1 full turn out. Does this sound close? Again, I appreciate all the previous help and look forward to any ideas on this further topic. <br /><br />Thanks again,<br />John