This is the tractor I bought last week: http://www.linearrow.com/tractor/tractor3.jpg
It’s a 1952 Sidemount – the guy who sold it to me said it wasn’t firing and he hadn’t looked deeper…it had sat for a year or two.
[b:289f59d58c]Current Problem[/b:289f59d58c]:
I won’t stay running.
Hard Starting but Starts – runs for a few seconds and sounds pretty normal…then idles down and dies.
Seems to run a few more seconds it sits a minute or two between tries.
I got it started once and was able to keep it running for 2-3 minutes if I hit the starting fluid every 10-15 seconds. I was hoping it would stay going if it got a little warmed up.
[b:289f59d58c]What I have done:[/b:289f59d58c]
When I took a look at the distributor I noticed the points were in bad shape so I took the points-plate off and blew out the distributor housing. That is when I noticed that the little copper strip connecting the electrical through-bolt to the points was cracked in two. I made a replacement then installed New Points/condenser and rotor..I originally “rough-set” the points by eyeball but went back and set the points to .025 as specified when it didn’t run as expected. There was no apparent difference in the symptoms after setting the points correctly.
Tried lots of setting combos between the choke and throttle and found it tends to do better if I have it at 2/3 throttle or more…with some choke(still haven’t perfected that). I also had a friend work the carb rod directly but it didn’t make much difference.
I checked the plugs…all of them look good and the two I checked for spark produced a bright blue spark.
Drained the tank – flushed with fresh gas
Cleaned the sediment bowl and put a new screen/gasket in it and flushed the whole fuel line with fresh gas.
Removed and disassembled carb – cleaned it and reset all of the mixture adjustment screws to the recommended initial settings. I left the idle speed screw alone.
I confirmed there was ample volume of fuel flow all the way to the bowl of the carb by taking the drain bolt out to empty the bowl and then opening the fuel valve….it poured out of there and stopped the second I turned the valve back off.
The float valve is closing and not leaking (sat all night w/the fuel valve open w/o leaking a drop.)
When I took the float off to clean the valve it looked fine and didn’t have any fluid inside it.
[b:289f59d58c]What I haven’t done:[/b:289f59d58c]
I haven’t checked the float level because I didn’t have the measurement handy when I was working.
I also haven’t removed the inline fuel filter…mainly because it flows so freely I can’t imagine it being the problem, it flows as much fuel as the line itself does w/the filter removed.
I haven’t looked at the wiring beyond the distributor – it’s getting good spark and turning over fine and even running properly for a few seconds at a time.
[b:289f59d58c]My humble opinion at this point:[/b:289f59d58c]
It’s getting starved for fuel – possibly because the float is wrong. The way it dies certainly reminds me of what my other ones do when they run out of fuel.
Arguing against that conclusion is that it was “apparently” running Ok before it stopped getting spark…how could a healthy float allasudden get misadjusted?
The last thing I did was clean/readjust the carb mainly because the assumption is that it was set up right when it stopped firing.[u:289f59d58c][/u:289f59d58c]
It’s a 1952 Sidemount – the guy who sold it to me said it wasn’t firing and he hadn’t looked deeper…it had sat for a year or two.
[b:289f59d58c]Current Problem[/b:289f59d58c]:
I won’t stay running.
Hard Starting but Starts – runs for a few seconds and sounds pretty normal…then idles down and dies.
Seems to run a few more seconds it sits a minute or two between tries.
I got it started once and was able to keep it running for 2-3 minutes if I hit the starting fluid every 10-15 seconds. I was hoping it would stay going if it got a little warmed up.
[b:289f59d58c]What I have done:[/b:289f59d58c]
When I took a look at the distributor I noticed the points were in bad shape so I took the points-plate off and blew out the distributor housing. That is when I noticed that the little copper strip connecting the electrical through-bolt to the points was cracked in two. I made a replacement then installed New Points/condenser and rotor..I originally “rough-set” the points by eyeball but went back and set the points to .025 as specified when it didn’t run as expected. There was no apparent difference in the symptoms after setting the points correctly.
Tried lots of setting combos between the choke and throttle and found it tends to do better if I have it at 2/3 throttle or more…with some choke(still haven’t perfected that). I also had a friend work the carb rod directly but it didn’t make much difference.
I checked the plugs…all of them look good and the two I checked for spark produced a bright blue spark.
Drained the tank – flushed with fresh gas
Cleaned the sediment bowl and put a new screen/gasket in it and flushed the whole fuel line with fresh gas.
Removed and disassembled carb – cleaned it and reset all of the mixture adjustment screws to the recommended initial settings. I left the idle speed screw alone.
I confirmed there was ample volume of fuel flow all the way to the bowl of the carb by taking the drain bolt out to empty the bowl and then opening the fuel valve….it poured out of there and stopped the second I turned the valve back off.
The float valve is closing and not leaking (sat all night w/the fuel valve open w/o leaking a drop.)
When I took the float off to clean the valve it looked fine and didn’t have any fluid inside it.
[b:289f59d58c]What I haven’t done:[/b:289f59d58c]
I haven’t checked the float level because I didn’t have the measurement handy when I was working.
I also haven’t removed the inline fuel filter…mainly because it flows so freely I can’t imagine it being the problem, it flows as much fuel as the line itself does w/the filter removed.
I haven’t looked at the wiring beyond the distributor – it’s getting good spark and turning over fine and even running properly for a few seconds at a time.
[b:289f59d58c]My humble opinion at this point:[/b:289f59d58c]
It’s getting starved for fuel – possibly because the float is wrong. The way it dies certainly reminds me of what my other ones do when they run out of fuel.
Arguing against that conclusion is that it was “apparently” running Ok before it stopped getting spark…how could a healthy float allasudden get misadjusted?
The last thing I did was clean/readjust the carb mainly because the assumption is that it was set up right when it stopped firing.[u:289f59d58c][/u:289f59d58c]