4020 Gas

[oldtanker]

A friend has a 4020 gas. He says it's hard starting and he has to turn the distributer a little to get it started with a little shot of ether and then set the timing back to run it. I ask him awhat he had done to it. He has gone through the carb and replaced the coil, cap and rotor. I ask him if he had set the points and he says there are none. He claims that there is just a metal plate under that cap. Now I've never worked on a gas JD except for garden tractors and I'm guessing that there is some kind of dust cover in the distributer. I'm going to be looking at it for him (90 miles one way) when I have my next VA appointment. So what am I looking for? I know there has to be a set of points or an IE conversion. He also said it had been converted to 12 volts. I thought the 20 series were all 12 or 12/24 volt? He uses the tractor for snow duty in the winter and a little mowing in the summer so getting him to spring for a manual may not be possible.

I would like to have the timing/tune up specs and anything else that may help.

Thanks

Rick
 

[David G]

There very well could be a metal dust plate under the rotor. That needs popped out to expose the points and condenser.

An easy check of advance functionality is to twist the rotor a little bit, it should spring back. It will only do this in one direction.
 

[tim s]

And it could have an electronic conversion in it...
 

[oldtanker]