97 workhorse runs on one cylinder only

[1idman]

I just bought a workhorse, it had been sitting for about 4 months. I put in a new battery and it ran fine. I got it home drove it around for awhile, all seemed fine. as the days went on it became harder and harder to get it started. Today I could not start it at all. I found that it does start when I take the plug wire off the second cylinder I swapped the plugs and same thing . I do have spark from both ignition wires , but if I try to start with only the second cylinder or both wires on , it will not start. Any ideas what to do next?

[big mule]

If possible do a compression check & check valve adjustment.Also if you don't have a compression guage remove the sparkplugs and insert a screwdriver into each cylinder then while turning the clutch by hand be sure both of the pistons are moving up & down (indicated by the movement of the screwdrivers) to rule out a broken rod.