[AT] lawn tractor

[charlie hill]

Steve, If I'm reading Richard's message correctly the engine never shuts 
off, it just
stumbles for a while then runs ok for a while then stumbles for a while.
That would not be a coil problem in my opinion.

I'm thinking it's stumbling because it's starving for fuel which is causing 
the governor
to kick in, the carb butterfly to open which decreases intake manifold 
vacuum.  I don't know
what kind of carb but I assume there is a vacuum connection of some sort to 
the fuel system.
Most small engines use vacuum to pump fuel if the system is NOT gravity 
flow.
It sounds to me like trash or water in the fuel, possibly trash floating in 
the tank or possibly
a very minute amount of water in the bottom of the carb.  I've had this 
exact experience
many times on my Allis tractors.  It's always either water or trash in the 
carb or trash
restricting fuel flow from the tank.  Also if the carb fuel bowl is filling 
up, the needle valve
is closing it off (maybe partially) and then not re-opening as it should it 
would run a while and
then start to run out of fuel.

The first time I ran into this on one of my AC tractors I replaced coil, 
condenser, points, plugs,
and rotor button over a period of a few days. Nothing helped.  Then I 
rebuilt the carb, cleaned
the fuel line and tank (as well as I could).  It still happened.  I got a 
friend of mine who is an
ace mechanic to listen to it.  He immediately said "water in your carb".  I 
told him I had just
carefully rebuilt it.  He said: "water in your carb".  Sure enough he was 
right.  I never saw the
water but when I took the carb back apart, cleaned it carefully, baked it 
dry and put it back together
and back on the tractor the problem was gone.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Stephen Offiler
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 8:20 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] lawn tractor

Agree with Charlie.   Tank vent is one of the first things I thought about.

When they run fine perfectly fine for 15-20 minutes (he said "good" not
"perfectly fine" so I am making some assumptions here) it is hard to blame
something inside the carb.

That does, however, sound something like a coil overheating.  Usually, they
run fine until the coil has a chance to heat up (15-20 minutes VERY
typical) and then they start to run ragged and they usually keep getting
worse and worse until it's dead, takes only seconds or minutes.  Restarting
while hot usually doesn't happen.  Let it cool about an hour or so and
it'll fire right up like nothing ever happened.  THAT is a classic coil
problem.

SO


On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 6:42 AM, charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
wrote:

> Just a guess but I'd check the fuel filter, vent on gas tank and
> check for water or crud in the fuel.   It  could be that the
> float valve is sticking when it's time for it to open.
>
> Just some thoughts.
>
> Charlie
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: R Fink Sr
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 6:13 AM
> To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> Subject: [AT] lawn tractor
>
>    Hi all have a question. I have a JD 216 lawn tractor have a engine
>    problem. It will run good for about 15-20 minutes then start to load up
>    like choke was puled out. Sputters a bit then runs ok then same thing
>    all over. I thought carb at first float to hi. some one worked on this
>    carb before I got it . Now I am thinking coil. All thoughts welcome.
>    R Fink
>    PA
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