distributor advance

[BLT]

I have a 520. Lately been running poorly, sometimes backfires misses fowls plugs, black sooty deposits on plugs. I thought it was carburation, now I'm not sure. Today I filed points set gap cleaned up everything. I noticed when timing it, I set it on tdc at idle, then when running wide open still on tdc or just slightly advanced. Shouldnt this thing go all the way up to 15 or 20 or so? So looking into the distributor with points and everything out I can see the advance mechinism. Is there an adjustment or some way to improve the amout of advance?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Take it apart and clean the advance mechanism with carburetor cleaner. Then oil it with light oil. It should advance from 0 degrees at idle to 20 degrees at full throttle. Also, I have seen the washer that controls end play worn out, so check this. You will be amazed at how much better the tractor will run.

 

[BLT]

Thanks Tom, I'll try that.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Had much the same trouble with a 40W. Turned out someone had replaced the advance springs with some that look a lot like original but they were NOT. Those that were in this distributor were way too strong for as slow as the old tractor spins and it was essentially running at 0° all the time.

My dealer declared originals no longer obtainable so I went to an automotive speed shop & obtained a spring assortment for Delco distributors & went to work. You won't regret this work!

 

[johndeereman]

before you tear anything apart drain your fuel and put some new in several people including myself are having trouble in our area (pennsylvania) seems to be a batch of bad gas my a has ran fine till this last weekend at the pull backfired fouled plugs whole nine yards i havent changed anything on the tractor i go to pulls bring it home park it in the garage this may or may not be your problem but i say its easy enough thing to rule out before you tear into a distributor or something