Forester Massey
Bronze Member
I got the rebuild fired up yesterday. Not without a few hiccups but I did get her going. I only lacked hooking up the gas tank and fuel. Initially it did not start and we spent nearly an hour trying to figure out why. First I had a few wires reversed on solenoid and two plug wires crossed. Then we had great spark but still would not get going.
That's when you begin to question in your mind if I had missed anything. If I had worked on it steady from the beginning I might have remembered better. But when you work on it intermittently you tend to forget if you covered everything. I felt comfortable I had, but you never know. At that point I felt like the timing was the issue. We had moved the distributor some but not much. Finally we decided to move it a lot more and it fired up immediately.
I noticed quickly that I had an antifreeze leak coming from the water temp gauge where it bolts into thermostat housing. I got that corrected but another leak surfaced and I still have not pinned it down. I believe its coming from the housing behind the thermostat housing. Its somewhat substantial. I may have to pull off the radiator but it looks like a fairly easy repair.
That was yesterday. Today I went to pick it up from my friends barn to bring home for fine tuning. It finally started and then died. After a lot of checking I determined the machine was parked on a down sloping grade and it was not getting fuel. I had not added much because I am going to have to remove tank to re-torque head bolts. I added a few more gallons and it still would not start. Battery finally was fading and I ran out of time.
I am curious to know from you that have these tractors what is the proper way to start them. I never started this tractor before the rebuild so I have no history. I have four dirt bikes and they all have to be treated different to get them going.
It seems it started best with no choke but I don't know how much fuel I should give it and if it floods easily. Any help would be appreciated. Even the manual is vague on this.
That's when you begin to question in your mind if I had missed anything. If I had worked on it steady from the beginning I might have remembered better. But when you work on it intermittently you tend to forget if you covered everything. I felt comfortable I had, but you never know. At that point I felt like the timing was the issue. We had moved the distributor some but not much. Finally we decided to move it a lot more and it fired up immediately.
I noticed quickly that I had an antifreeze leak coming from the water temp gauge where it bolts into thermostat housing. I got that corrected but another leak surfaced and I still have not pinned it down. I believe its coming from the housing behind the thermostat housing. Its somewhat substantial. I may have to pull off the radiator but it looks like a fairly easy repair.
That was yesterday. Today I went to pick it up from my friends barn to bring home for fine tuning. It finally started and then died. After a lot of checking I determined the machine was parked on a down sloping grade and it was not getting fuel. I had not added much because I am going to have to remove tank to re-torque head bolts. I added a few more gallons and it still would not start. Battery finally was fading and I ran out of time.
I am curious to know from you that have these tractors what is the proper way to start them. I never started this tractor before the rebuild so I have no history. I have four dirt bikes and they all have to be treated different to get them going.
It seems it started best with no choke but I don't know how much fuel I should give it and if it floods easily. Any help would be appreciated. Even the manual is vague on this.