Hi all. New user here but have spent a long time "lurking". I read this post and I think I may have some info to fix it. My father in law has an older Alice chalmers about the same size and vintage. He had a similar problem. It would start and then instantly die. As if all four cylinders would fire once only then die. After four hours of trying to diagnose it, he gave up and called a local equipment repair facility. They spent a lot? of time working on it and finally figured it out. Apparently there is a spring in the distributor that was broken. From what I gathered from my father in law, the spring kept pressure on a gear that keeps the motor in time? I would try taking the distributor apart to make sure nothing is broken/rusted. Some of the earlirer posts have already suggested looking at the points, which is very good advice. Especally on a tractor that has been sitting. It's not that much harder to keep taking the distributor apart to see what else is going on. Sorry if I stepped on any toes and sorry to be long winded. I'm going to head over to the new member introductions tomorrow to formally introduce myself. Good luck!!
