to30

[ricky green]

to 30 wont start again , I have replaced everything, wire, plug, points, condenser, rotor button, cap , coil , new gas with stabilizer 91 octane, it will turn over fine wont fire off, if we mess with it long enough it will start and after the mechanic come over to check it it will start but we never can find the problem, any suggestion as to the phanton problem is???

 

[Bob (Aust)]

It has to be either fuel or spark.

Are you getting good fuel flow at the carby? Have you checked for a good spark at the plugs?

Is it a 6 volt system? If it fires as soon as you disengage the starter, it may be that the starter is drawing excess current - or your battery is weak - resulting in the voltage at the coil being too low to start the engine.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Is it losing spark ?
If so , I would look for a loose wire in the ignition circuit .
Maybe jumper the ignition switch . It might be bad .
Might look for a bare wire that is taking the ignition circuit to ground .
Next time , pull the dist. cap and hand turn the motor until the points are closed . Now turn on the ignition switch . Open the points and see if you get a spark across them .
Is one end of the dist. to coil wire burnt off ? Try turning it over when it is dark and see if you can see fire tracking near the high voltage wire on the coil .

 

[Jerry/MT]

It"s either spark/timing or fuel. That"s simple enough to check. Once you find out what it is you can work on a solution. It pretty hard to help a person on the internet when he says his tractor won"t start but he hasn"t done a rudimentary check to try to find the source of the problem. I flunked Mind Reading 101.

If you don"t knowe how to check for spark or fuel delivery get back here and I"ll tell you how to do it. Quit throwing parts at it and do some basic analysis to find the problem.

 

[ssickler]

I had the screw that holds the points to the plate in the distributor stripped that caused grief for me. It had enough threads to snug, but didn"t carry a good ground.

 

[ricky green]

I changed these part 1 at a time , I didnt see a need to change back to the old ones , I saved them, for next time ,I left the farm at a young age I dont remember to much about working on the tractors , so my excuse is Iam leaning as I go, I keep this tractor in the shed , but someone about bad ground to point plate , I did notice last time that the screw that goes thru the dist. to the point had rust film starting on it so I cleaned it put some wd40 on it before I tighten it backup , now I think I will start at the key replacing wire to the dist, it getting gas to the carb i had the pipe off , I even hit it with ether , thanks for the help in teaching me to fix this tractor>

 

[Jerry/MT]

Take the center wire off the distributor cap( the one that goes to the top of the coil) and hold it near a good ground while you try to start the tractor. You should have a FAT, BLUISH-WHITE SPARK, the color of lightning. If you do then the ignition system is good. The timing should be OK unless you moved the distributor between when it started last and now. (If you did move the distributor, than you"llhave to retime it statically.) SO if you have spark, your problem will most likely be fuel related.

If you don"t have the requisite FAT, BLUISH-WHITE SPARK, then you need to make sure that the poinys are gapped correctly and that they do not have corrosion on them or are burned or oily. Check the voltage along the primmary ignition circuit(Battery to and through the key switch, to the coil) after rotating the engine so the points are CLOSED. With the points closed and the key switch on, you should read battery voltage on both sides of the key switch and to the battery side of the coil and almost zero volts on the distributor side of the coil where the small wire goes to the distributor case and the coil. Look for loose or broken wires, dirty connections,etc. Key switches crap out so put a jumper around the key switch and see if you can get a spark. If you do, replace the key switch.

If you have the requisite spark, then open the tank valve on the tractor and loosen the plug on the bottom of carburetor fuel bowl. You sjhould have a CONTINUOUS gush of fuel. If it dribbles or is intermittent, you"ll need to check the screens in te fuel delivery system. There is one in the carb inlet elbow and and one in the sediment bowl. Check the fuel tank vent in the cap to make sure it is not plugged.
Do these checks sytematically and you"ll find the cause of the problem.

 

[Larry N Texas]

Ricky,
I had a similar problem and replaced many parts, but I found that the condenser prong was touching the inside base of the distributor (metal) and grounding out. Once I pulled the wire up some, the tractor started and ran fine. You might check that out.