We got life. Looks to be running on one cylinder, the right. Left exhaust was cold while the right was building up temperature. Both ignition coils look the same, and share a common wire and there is continuity between them. I didn't actually test for spark, but all signs point to that being the culprit. Brand new spark plugs so someone has been trying to get this running before me. I'll actually test for spark and maybe swap the coils. Could, and probably is the coil, but I'll reset the gap before further diagnosis.
Enough for today. And tomorrow I have a deer to butcher. I'll look at it with fresh eyes Wednesday.
Boy, was this machine dirty. So so much grass loading up the mower deck. My feeling underneath makes me believe I'll be removing the deck and checking for easy spindle rotation and some doing blade sharpening.