3020 gas HELP

[Ranhil]

My gasser is running poor (sounds like a 2 cylinder)and have tried everthing I can think of. New carb kit and float,and new plugs. Wires (copper), points, dist cap, coil all new in last three years. Ran it last night in the dark and notice some spark around cylinder 2 and 3, seemed to be coming from under plug to wire connection. Took them off and tightened clips, still had a little spark. Are my wires bad??? Any help is apreciated. THANKS

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Sounds like the spark may be on the outside of the plugs. Might try replacing the plugs again. Avoid contact with the porcelain with your hands/chemicals or maybe the inside of your plug socket. Something is giving the spark a place to go outside.

 

[Larry in WNY]

Did you replace the condenser too? A bad one will make it run rough. Even a new one can go bad.

Larry

 

[Mike M]

Take an ohm meter and make sure your plug wires actually conduct. I have seen some that were new and the ends put on wrong and they don't make contact. These were from a kit that the installer has to put on one end.

 

[Bob M]

I work on a friend’s 3020 quite frequently. I’ve found it’s an unusually fussy tractor both for carburetion and ignition. And the ignition must be PERFECT or you will get hard starting, misfiring, etc exactly as you have found.

The sparks visible on the plug insulator are no good and must be eliminated. My suggestion is to install brand new plugs – perhaps even switch to a different brand equivalent to whatever’s in there now. Make sure the new plugs are plain old non-resistor style. Make sure also the plugs are gapped per the manual.

Keep the plug insulators scrupulously clean. After they’re torqued down wipe the insulators with alcohol and a clean dry rag to remove any trace of skin oil or other contamination picked up during handling.

Finally if the current plug wires have deep, rubber boots covering most of the plug insulator get rid of them and replace with old style uninsulated metal terminals.

Also are you sure the plug wires are solid copper core? Check with an ohmmeter - end to end they should be no more than a few tenths of an ohm per wire. If not replace them.

 

[Randy Varilek]

I have been around a lot of these old gas burners and one of the best fixes i have found is the petronix electronic conversion kits sold on here.... they can turn a fussy tractor into a great tractor! I have had excellent luck on the 3 3020's i put them into...they will double the spark out of that old stock distributer without changing its appearance and the better the spark, the easier the fussy carb is to deal with...better spark will fire a slightly rich or lean mixture better leading to less miss fires and easier starting.... they run around 100 dollars but once you put one in, you will never regret it! check around too... my local Pronto auto parts handles them as well as my JD dealer.