Homelite 330 air gap

[calamari]

This site looked like my best chance to get an answer about my Homelite 330. I've owned it for over 30 relatively trouble free years and only had to replace the rubber intake tube a couple years ago for the first time. The saw cuts just great but working on it requires a Munchkins hands and a lot of patience.
In trying to start it the last time I flooded it pretty badly. Not the first time I've done that but after doing everything I've done in the past and could think of to dry it out and starting it (including days with the plug out and starting fluid) I started to think I may have a spark problem. I tried to check the spark but couldn't see anything. New plug, zip. I thought I'd check to make sure the coil was making good contact so I took the saw apart. Actually it took me so long to get the saw apart I got fed up and bought a new Makita EA 6100 because...I could. There'll be another post about that saw. Now I want to get Old Red back together and here's my question:
In checking the air gap I tried the usual recommendation of using a business card which approximates a .010" air gap. Actually it's .012" but... I find the air gap starts out at greater than .010" when I rotate the crank but when the front of magnet gets to the back of the coil pickup it's actually tighter. Does this ever tightening gap result in a point where the gap is optimal and at that point it fires the plugs and if so varying the taper on the gap should change the timing of the saw and could lead to rich/lean issues. OR, should it be uniform in its air gap and my saw is out of adjustment? There is no slop in the crank so it's not a wobble issue.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Set the gap where the magnets meet the coil, the rest of the flywheel gap does not matter as long as the flywheel is not contacting the coil laminations. If you are not getting spark at .010 gap then its not the air gap, the factory air gap is .015, more likely the coil/module has gone bad but check that the shut off wire is not grounded. Pull the wire off the switch and try for spark, also check the high tension wire from the coil to the sparkplug, especially inside the boot that covers the plug end, that coiled wire inside can loose contact with the wire inside the jacket. If all this is in good condition then the module is likely shot.

 

[calamari]

After reading what i wrote, I see I wasn't clear about where I measured the gap. When I rotate the engine and the leading edge of the magnet first aligns with the leading edge of the coil the gap is greater than.012" but when I continue to rotate the engine it gets progressively tighter until the leading edge of the magnet when it reaches the back edge of the coil is less than .010". If it's supposed to be a uniform distance then that's how I'll set it. I didn't measure the gap anywhere else than when the magnet and coil were in proximity.
I've checked all the wires including the plug wire and they all seem fine. The odd thing is that it was running fine when I put it away. The starting procedure for my saw was to give it full choke until it pops once and then take the choke off and start the saw. Usually took one and occasionally two pulls. This last time after the ready to go "pop" it just didn't go. I tried choking it again after about 10 pulls which as I've found out after trying to stop myself from doing it, is the kiss of death and a flooded engine. It did pop initially though so it had spark for the first three pulls.
Thanks for your help.