Hello guys. I've been playing with everything I can find and I'm just not getting something. I can't get any constants to go by, so maybe you gentlemen can see something I don't. If anyone needs anything I missed in the post, Just let me know. Pics, Videos, Numbers, Measurements, anything.
So here goes. I bought a 1953 John Deere 50 (serial 50032XX with Wico xb4023b mag) from a guy who had NO knowledge about them. It looks like the barn, house and chicken coop all fell in on it. Got it home, and found ALL the wiring to be junk. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor had never fired. All were brand new. I pulled everything out of the mag, cleaned it all up, and reinstalled with good clean grounds. Still no spark. Needless so say, I jumped a wire from the battery straight to the ignition resistor at the mag and (using a turkey baster for fuel) got to hear the sweet sound of the 2cyl screaming to life. She needed the choke on a bit.... and a TON of other work before moving, but I got there eventually. Now its fine tune time. The dltx-75 duplex carb is a bear with those steel balls, and I can't even SEE the ones on the bottom. The passages did flow, but not enough obviously.
So I soaked the carb in berryman's for a night and cleaned it with gasoline and any other cleaners I could find that would take off everything ailing me. With the grease gone and some passages available, I drilled out the two passage plugs and popped them off with an awl. Muriatic acid. This stuff is tricky and comes with a laundry list of warnings and precautions, but it can do wonders on rust. Turns it to sludge in seconds. I controlled the flow and sent it down the passages. Gobs of yellow acid and goo came out for a few minutes, but eventually she cleared up and came out with no contaminants. Rebuild kit installed, I bolted it back up. I could barely tell I cleaned it. Still couldn't get her to stop hunting the left side, and dropping the needle out did next to nothing in terms of idle. Turning it in would stall the cylinder, but out more than 2 turns did nothing. Four times the carb came off and got cleaned. Wire through the ports from all sides that would bend around gave me nothing but clean fluid. Any solvent I sent in showed me it was all clean the first time by the amount of water I could send through it, It should have been. So I put it back on.
Time to check the timing. It starts fine when cold, but fights me a while to start when warm. The float level is 3/4" from the bottom of the body, and all jets are spotless. I can turn the load needle all the way in and nothing changes, so it's gotta be timing, right? I put the timing light on (I converted to 12v Negative when I bought the 10SI alternator) and I notice the light misses when I'm hearing the engine drop on the Number 1 (left) cylinder. Time to check the bushings are re-investigate the mag. I cleaned it all out with paint brushes and gas/carb cleaner. Wire wheeled any contacts or connections and reinstalled with small dabs of oil anywhere things needed to move freely. Now the miss seems to be gone, but the timing only holds it's 25 degrees btdc for a few moments before it drops down to 20 or even less and the idle kicks itself down. Points are at .015 but they were a little closer than that before, and it DID start EVERY TIME when they were at about .010, but I've done a lot of work since then. Anything could have changed that. Now as for the governor, I got the tractor with it set to 2 full holes short of fitting in. I tried adjusting it to 1 and even all the way to 1/2 from in, but it just gets so sluggish that she dies out before I get the gas I need. Sometimes it's like the governor has a half mile of movement before it acts on the situation.
Today, after cleaning the mag and starting it up, I noticed she ran very fast even with the throttle plates closed, but died down and barely stayed alive after 30 seconds or so. The manifold gaskets are new and I don't see a vacuum leak possible, but it does a lot of popping and backfiring through the intake. I just don't know. The main issue is that it feels like the governor doesn't care what it does with give either way, and I can't tune the idle screws worth a darn with it doing whatever it wants. If I take the governor out of the equation I still can't get a clean idle to even adjust. She does whatever she wants to do between dropping a spark (might be fixed now, haven't tried long enough) or random idle regardless of the throttle position. It'll run at 800rmp with the throttle closed, and then drop down to 300 or die after any random amount of seconds from 3 to 30 without touching it. Since I can't actually adjust the carb this way, I'm sure that's where the backfiring is coming from. The needles work to stall out a cylinder and it'll run just fine with the choke off until it decides to dog out or race up.
I've messed around with so many things and every time I think I fix something, it breaks something else. I even smoked the stater and had to rip that all apart and re-solder the armature to the windings. To much button push time I guess. That was when she was warm. Everything I fix from the tractor full of yankee ingenuity (I'm from MA so I can say that) has had adverse effects. I'm just not sure I can save her without help. I'm even about to ship the carb to someone to see if they can tune it. That would at least solve one issue. A good smack of the throttle send her straight to a solid high idle with a slight puff of black at 2 1/2 turns of the load, and she runs GREAT there, but a miss at high rmp is hard to hear. This is obviously more of a venting than a reach for help, but if anyone has any ideas why little brother isn't running right, I'd love to hear it. Still haven't received my service manual so maybe that will give me a few ideas. I think tomorrow I'll check the valve adjustment. Does anyone know if a valve cover gasket from a 48A would fit on a 53 50? The RTV holding this one just won't do, but I haven't gone a day without hearing the pop since the day he came home. Ok, I feel SO much better now. Stupid addictive green things. My neighbors do NOT need this much sleep.
So here goes. I bought a 1953 John Deere 50 (serial 50032XX with Wico xb4023b mag) from a guy who had NO knowledge about them. It looks like the barn, house and chicken coop all fell in on it. Got it home, and found ALL the wiring to be junk. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor had never fired. All were brand new. I pulled everything out of the mag, cleaned it all up, and reinstalled with good clean grounds. Still no spark. Needless so say, I jumped a wire from the battery straight to the ignition resistor at the mag and (using a turkey baster for fuel) got to hear the sweet sound of the 2cyl screaming to life. She needed the choke on a bit.... and a TON of other work before moving, but I got there eventually. Now its fine tune time. The dltx-75 duplex carb is a bear with those steel balls, and I can't even SEE the ones on the bottom. The passages did flow, but not enough obviously.
So I soaked the carb in berryman's for a night and cleaned it with gasoline and any other cleaners I could find that would take off everything ailing me. With the grease gone and some passages available, I drilled out the two passage plugs and popped them off with an awl. Muriatic acid. This stuff is tricky and comes with a laundry list of warnings and precautions, but it can do wonders on rust. Turns it to sludge in seconds. I controlled the flow and sent it down the passages. Gobs of yellow acid and goo came out for a few minutes, but eventually she cleared up and came out with no contaminants. Rebuild kit installed, I bolted it back up. I could barely tell I cleaned it. Still couldn't get her to stop hunting the left side, and dropping the needle out did next to nothing in terms of idle. Turning it in would stall the cylinder, but out more than 2 turns did nothing. Four times the carb came off and got cleaned. Wire through the ports from all sides that would bend around gave me nothing but clean fluid. Any solvent I sent in showed me it was all clean the first time by the amount of water I could send through it, It should have been. So I put it back on.
Time to check the timing. It starts fine when cold, but fights me a while to start when warm. The float level is 3/4" from the bottom of the body, and all jets are spotless. I can turn the load needle all the way in and nothing changes, so it's gotta be timing, right? I put the timing light on (I converted to 12v Negative when I bought the 10SI alternator) and I notice the light misses when I'm hearing the engine drop on the Number 1 (left) cylinder. Time to check the bushings are re-investigate the mag. I cleaned it all out with paint brushes and gas/carb cleaner. Wire wheeled any contacts or connections and reinstalled with small dabs of oil anywhere things needed to move freely. Now the miss seems to be gone, but the timing only holds it's 25 degrees btdc for a few moments before it drops down to 20 or even less and the idle kicks itself down. Points are at .015 but they were a little closer than that before, and it DID start EVERY TIME when they were at about .010, but I've done a lot of work since then. Anything could have changed that. Now as for the governor, I got the tractor with it set to 2 full holes short of fitting in. I tried adjusting it to 1 and even all the way to 1/2 from in, but it just gets so sluggish that she dies out before I get the gas I need. Sometimes it's like the governor has a half mile of movement before it acts on the situation.
Today, after cleaning the mag and starting it up, I noticed she ran very fast even with the throttle plates closed, but died down and barely stayed alive after 30 seconds or so. The manifold gaskets are new and I don't see a vacuum leak possible, but it does a lot of popping and backfiring through the intake. I just don't know. The main issue is that it feels like the governor doesn't care what it does with give either way, and I can't tune the idle screws worth a darn with it doing whatever it wants. If I take the governor out of the equation I still can't get a clean idle to even adjust. She does whatever she wants to do between dropping a spark (might be fixed now, haven't tried long enough) or random idle regardless of the throttle position. It'll run at 800rmp with the throttle closed, and then drop down to 300 or die after any random amount of seconds from 3 to 30 without touching it. Since I can't actually adjust the carb this way, I'm sure that's where the backfiring is coming from. The needles work to stall out a cylinder and it'll run just fine with the choke off until it decides to dog out or race up.
I've messed around with so many things and every time I think I fix something, it breaks something else. I even smoked the stater and had to rip that all apart and re-solder the armature to the windings. To much button push time I guess. That was when she was warm. Everything I fix from the tractor full of yankee ingenuity (I'm from MA so I can say that) has had adverse effects. I'm just not sure I can save her without help. I'm even about to ship the carb to someone to see if they can tune it. That would at least solve one issue. A good smack of the throttle send her straight to a solid high idle with a slight puff of black at 2 1/2 turns of the load, and she runs GREAT there, but a miss at high rmp is hard to hear. This is obviously more of a venting than a reach for help, but if anyone has any ideas why little brother isn't running right, I'd love to hear it. Still haven't received my service manual so maybe that will give me a few ideas. I think tomorrow I'll check the valve adjustment. Does anyone know if a valve cover gasket from a 48A would fit on a 53 50? The RTV holding this one just won't do, but I haven't gone a day without hearing the pop since the day he came home. Ok, I feel SO much better now. Stupid addictive green things. My neighbors do NOT need this much sleep.