Tell me how the start retard is causing an engine to kick back IF the rotor is correctly in phase?
You have the rotor at let us say in his example of locked distributor at 36 degrees. If your rotor is correct in phase at that 36 deg timing, when you retard the ignition for starting, electrically it will also retard the rotor position by 20 degrees with a 20 degree retard. That puts the rotor at now 16 degrees BTDC. How in the crap is 16 degrees BTDC going to cause a kick back? I settled on that for my car a 25 degree retard worked best. The 30 degree moved the rotor position too far toward the next coil tower post and did cause a kick back. REtail versions came out with 20 degree retards.
I designed and develpoed the original start/run retard and I tried every amout of ignition advance from 10 deg up to 30 degrees to find what would be better. My test car had 16.85 -1 compression too. Both Warren Johnson and myself did the testing on the first two protype units. I feel that I am very qualified to talk about this eventhough the original one has long since been replaced with newer digital versions.
By You spinning the engine over and then turning on the ignition switch, you have already defeated any concept of how start retard works.
KIck back is caused by several possible reasons, none of which is the MSED Start Retard when correctly used.
1
Excess fuel in the chamber/cylinder prior to 1st plug firing.
2
Engine electrically swapping cylinders becuase of rotor out of phase. The path for electrical energy to the next nearest coil terminal is easier than to the one supposed to be firing. It is easier to fire a cylinder with little to no cylinder pressure than it is the one under pressure with the closed valves.
3
Crank Trigger gap is too wide, causing a conflicting initial trigger signal from between the distributor and the crank trigger. Check the MSD WEbpage about Crank Trigger gap adjusting. I usually set that gap at .055 to .060
If you are kicking back and breaking teeth on flywheels it is also hard on rod bearings.
Ed