41 H starts hard when hot

[Dave41A]

I have a 41 H with 3 7/16 step-head pistons but is otherwise stock. Magneto ignition with a fairly new coil.

First start in the morning it fires right up in 2-3 seconds, with no choke. But if I am working the tractor for a while and have to shut down, it will take 20-30 seconds on the starter to fire when restarting. Yesterday it took several tries of 20-30 seconds each. I was afraid of draining the battery so let it sit for a few minutes. Even then it started hard. After restarting the tractor, it runs fine again--no problems at all.

If the tractor sits for a half hour or so it will fire right up again.



Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. Dave

 

[teddy52food]

If it starts without the choke it may be rich. Then when hot it may be flooded. Did you check the spark & make sure it jumps at least 1/4 inch when it doesn't start? I had a mag that when it got hot the tractor would stop. Condenser was failing when it got hot. I have the tools to check it out.

 

[redforlife]

Why shut down, and then re-start right away when hot?? Even if you just let it idle for 5 or 10 minutes instead of shutting it off during that time, you are virtually not burning much gas. Just leave it run during those short spells instead of shutting it off. If you know it don't like that, then just leave it run when you get off to open that pasture gate, or open that garage door.
I know this don't answer your question or fix your problem, but if it runs fine otherwise, it don't take much to improvise around this situation.

I don't ever shut tractors off if they are to just be restarted again right away. They stay running until I get done with what I'm needing to do with them, and parked back in thier ussual spot or elsewhere if intended. Gas is often siphoned, and dumped in the next tractor to be used.

I do alot of winter time chores. Once a tractor starts, it don't get shut off until chores are all done for the day. If I have to open/close gates, cut twine off of bales, move feeders, shut off water hydrants, whatever, the tractor runs continuously until I'm atleast done with the tractor itself. Then it gets shut off. Just how I do things. Others may not.

Sometimes the gas saved, is not worth the chance of a no go restart on these old machines. And on a 41 H, your not even talking about all that much gas.

 

[Dave41A]

Thanks. I try to leave the tractor running for 5-10 minutes if I know I will be using it again right away. This avoids the hot restart problem. However, right now I am mowing and sometimes have to clear sickle bar or conditioner clogs. Sometimes I will get grass bound up around the PTO shaft near the PTO output, under the guard. When clearing this it is easy to bump the PTO lever that is right above the pto output shaft. I have done this by accident and it started to rattle as if to engage. Close call. So for mowing and clearing clogs I now force myself to go through the full shutdown. I only need to make a mistake once.

 

[fastfarmall]

Sounds like the old 6 foot case combine, with the Wisconsin air cooled engine !

 

[Janicholson]

Another partial solution is fat Battery cables Ogauge is good. Shutting off the fuel at the tank might mitigate minor flooding as well. Jim

 

[Dave41A]

I have 00 on there right now.

 

[rustred]

feel the coil when its shut down , if its hot thats your problem

 

[DaveBN]

When it won't start you need to check for spark right away. I have a neat little spark tester I bought at NAPA. It has a screw with a point on it that can be screwed closer or farther from a contact. The screw has an end on it like a spark plug. The contact end has an alligator clip to clip on to a ground. So you just pull one of the spark plug wires and connect it to the screw end and put the alligator clip on a good, clean ground and run the starter to see if you have spark. I had a tractor doing what yours is doing and when I put my spark tester on it it would start right away. That made it harder to trouble shoot but finally found a bad condenser.
Spark tester is a out $10 and VERY HANDY to have.
I'll try to post a picture of one.
Dave

 

[DaveBN]

Here is a picture of my spark tester.
Dave

 

[Dave41A]

Dave BN: Thanks. Was out using it to pull the baler yesterday and had to do one shutdown. Very hard to restart...several tries of long cranking, maybe 20-30 seconds each. Seems like it is getting worse. I did check for spark right away and yes, it throws hot sparks a good quarter inch long when I test against the block. I leaned it out a bit as others suggested but it does not seem to matter. I did not take the mag cover off out in the field but I can try that to see if that coil is hot when I have some time. Running out of ideas here. Thanks for the continued input.