Coil or carb

[Grandpots]

I"ve always heard carburettors are usually the very last thing to
blame. So I am thinking about my problem is with the coil (and
a lot easier to work with). The problem is my 2000 ford 3-cyl
gas tractor (1967??) will start up really good and run for about
4-5 minutes. Then will die and after a minute or so will start
and run (I do choke it again before hitting the starter) really
good again for a few minutes. What should I do? Grandpots
 

[JMOR]

[rustyfarmall]

[souNdguy]

dityto what jmor said.

gradual or allof a sudden.

any custom wireing repalcing the resistor wire to the coil.. any custom fuelline routing, etc
 

[Grandpots]

Thanks guys...the things I have done ...replaced air filter(took
care of hard to start), new set of points, cleaned out sediment
bowl but couldn't find the replacement filter or would have (it's
a strange looking filter with lots of little washer like thingys
stacked on top of each other????). And that's about it. The
carb looks a bit hard to remove and I don't know where all the
filters are that might need replaced????
 

[Grandpots]

Yes I did seem to come on fairly quickly???
 

[Grandpots]

I meant to ask which coil should I use?
 

[Jerry/MT]

I wouldn"t zoom in on the coil per se being the problem.
Check the spark by pulling the center wire out of the distributor ccap and holding it near a good ground , try a start. You should have a FAT, BLUISH-WHITE SPARK, the color of lightning. if you do, then most likely the ignition isn"t the problem. Look athe fuel delivery.

If you don"t have th requisite spark, I"d look at the entire primary ignition circuit-battery to ignition switch (solenoid connection if it has one)to the coil to the distributor to ground. Corrosion at connections, maladjusted burned, corroded or oily points, corroded ignition switch, etc. Check the resistance of the primary part of the coil. For a 12 V it should be around 3.2 ohms and for a 6 volt it should be around 1.6 ohms. If you have a 12V system and your coil is 1.6 ohms, you"ll need a ballst resistor in the primary circuit to limit the point current to ~4 amps max.
 

[Dell (WA)]

Grandpots........it aint'chur sparkies, ittz'chur gasoline TANK VACUUM. Yer carby has about 5-mins of gas run time. Once it runs outta gas, guess what??? It stops running. Because it takes about 1-min fer the air to suck'em-back up into the gastank to relieve the VACUUM and then gravity refills the carb float chamber to run fer 'nutter 5-mins and DIES. Sometimes you need a NEW GAS CAP 'cuz the breather valve scheme gitts CLOGGED. .........Dell
 

[Sean in PA]

To test Dell's theory about the gas cap vent being clogged, simply remove the gas cap and see if it'll run more than 5 minutes. If so, case closed. If not, it's not the gas cap.
 

[mhb@ufe]

You might want to disconnect the fuel line from the shut off valve under the gas tank and check the fuel flow coming out of the tank. The shut off valve has a screen that goes up in the tank and they are known for the screen falling off so that dirt gets in the outlet and plugs it.

Mark
 

[Grandpots]

I finally found it...a wire barely making connection to my ignition . You couldn't see it z d I found the problem by giving a small tug on the wire and bingo the connection was apart. These things are really hard to find and by reading your posts started looking for the not so obvious...THANKS So Much once again life is good...my tractor is running and the wife is in A good mood😊

Charley....Grandpots