PorkChopsMmm
Gold Member
I am the poster from this infamous thread where my 8N was having some serious issues last winter. With your help, and a lot of patience, we were able to get her running strong last early Spring. She worked well for me Spring, Summer, and Fall and with tire chains on she has been a beast on snow this winter. Well, until last week. I have run into an issue and I was wondering if you all could help me troubleshoot? I have been told it sounds like a governor issue but I don't want to jump to conclusions.
The tractor was running strong but twice, while I had a large pile of snow in front of the back blade when driving forward the tractor stalled and cut out. Upon restarting it felt like the tractor was running strange with low power, sounded much different, and would only run "well" when at half throttle -- not full throttle. Eventually these issued cleared up with running it for a while and/or letting it sit for a while.
Fastforward a week and now when starting the tractor it has the same behavior but has never returned to normal. It will only start when the throttle is all the way down and surprisingly idles great at a low RPM. But it feels like it has no power and will stall very easily -- even when trying to initially move forward or backup. I can't move the throttle beyond halfway without the engine sounding like it is going to stall. It is at the same exact point of throttle movement that the engine is strong or grows weak.
I checked the gas to the carb (looks good), the electrical system (battery is still reading 14+ volts when running and the engine is stumbling), and she starts right up. I tried manually pulling on the throttle arm on the governor and it was having the same response, so I don't think the throttle arm is getting hung up anywhere.
If one could manually set timing on my front distrib '48 8N I would think to look there but I haven't messed with the distributor/points/etc. in a year and they haven't gotten wet or anything.
Any ideas? I took a video and will work on getting it posted to YouTube (I know you love that, SoundGuy).
EDIT:To add some more info on using the choke... I have noticed that when starting the tractor I REALLY need to slowly feather the choke or the engine will die. I thought this was attributed to it being so cold here in Michigan. With the engine running so poorly I believe, from memory, that even touching the choke makes the engine die. When it stalls out when trying to reverse, for example, I start it back up by putting the throttle all the way down and only hitting the start button -- not using choke.
The tractor was running strong but twice, while I had a large pile of snow in front of the back blade when driving forward the tractor stalled and cut out. Upon restarting it felt like the tractor was running strange with low power, sounded much different, and would only run "well" when at half throttle -- not full throttle. Eventually these issued cleared up with running it for a while and/or letting it sit for a while.
Fastforward a week and now when starting the tractor it has the same behavior but has never returned to normal. It will only start when the throttle is all the way down and surprisingly idles great at a low RPM. But it feels like it has no power and will stall very easily -- even when trying to initially move forward or backup. I can't move the throttle beyond halfway without the engine sounding like it is going to stall. It is at the same exact point of throttle movement that the engine is strong or grows weak.
I checked the gas to the carb (looks good), the electrical system (battery is still reading 14+ volts when running and the engine is stumbling), and she starts right up. I tried manually pulling on the throttle arm on the governor and it was having the same response, so I don't think the throttle arm is getting hung up anywhere.
If one could manually set timing on my front distrib '48 8N I would think to look there but I haven't messed with the distributor/points/etc. in a year and they haven't gotten wet or anything.
Any ideas? I took a video and will work on getting it posted to YouTube (I know you love that, SoundGuy).
EDIT:To add some more info on using the choke... I have noticed that when starting the tractor I REALLY need to slowly feather the choke or the engine will die. I thought this was attributed to it being so cold here in Michigan. With the engine running so poorly I believe, from memory, that even touching the choke makes the engine die. When it stalls out when trying to reverse, for example, I start it back up by putting the throttle all the way down and only hitting the start button -- not using choke.
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