Once or twice over the past couple of months I've posted about my MF35 that was running poorly. Had a hell of a time figuring out what was wrong.
One day I filled it up with gas, and then went out to check on cows. While I was out in the pasture it started running poorly.
It acted like it wasn't getting enough gas. It would idle just fine. But get it up to 1,200 RPMs or so and it would start to die as if you had shut the key off. Pull the choke out and it would take off again for a few seconds.
I figured it wasn't getting fuel. But when I took the plug out of the carb I got a steady stream of fuel running out. I took the carb off, disassembled it, and blew out every orifice I could find. It made no difference.
I wondered if maybe the gas was bad. But we filled up 2 other tractors out of the same tank, and they ran fine.
I tried a new distributor cap, rotor & new spark plugs. The points and condenser were new last fall, so I didn't mess with them.
I did a compression check, and it turned out O.K. Took the gas tank and valve cover off, but found no problems.
Played with the timing, adjusted the carb, and everything else I could think of. But nothing seemed to make any difference. It was really frustrating.
I eventually gave up and called an old mechanic that used to work at an MF dealer. He came out and messed with it for an hour or so. He couldn't figure it out, so he loaded it up and took it to his shop.
He called a couple of days later to say the points were the problem. I had a hard time believing it, so I went in to his shop to have a look. Here's what the points looked like:
Here's a little closer look to show where they were arcing:
I had looked at the contacts on the points, but had never looked at where the wires attached. On this set the wires were just held in place by spring pressure. (No screw) And that's where they were arcing.
So I wasted 2 or 3 months trying to track down a problem that was caused by a set of cheap points that cost a few bucks.
Gonna have to look into one of those electronic ignition kits....
One day I filled it up with gas, and then went out to check on cows. While I was out in the pasture it started running poorly.
It acted like it wasn't getting enough gas. It would idle just fine. But get it up to 1,200 RPMs or so and it would start to die as if you had shut the key off. Pull the choke out and it would take off again for a few seconds.
I figured it wasn't getting fuel. But when I took the plug out of the carb I got a steady stream of fuel running out. I took the carb off, disassembled it, and blew out every orifice I could find. It made no difference.
I wondered if maybe the gas was bad. But we filled up 2 other tractors out of the same tank, and they ran fine.
I tried a new distributor cap, rotor & new spark plugs. The points and condenser were new last fall, so I didn't mess with them.
I did a compression check, and it turned out O.K. Took the gas tank and valve cover off, but found no problems.
Played with the timing, adjusted the carb, and everything else I could think of. But nothing seemed to make any difference. It was really frustrating.
I eventually gave up and called an old mechanic that used to work at an MF dealer. He came out and messed with it for an hour or so. He couldn't figure it out, so he loaded it up and took it to his shop.
He called a couple of days later to say the points were the problem. I had a hard time believing it, so I went in to his shop to have a look. Here's what the points looked like:
Here's a little closer look to show where they were arcing:
I had looked at the contacts on the points, but had never looked at where the wires attached. On this set the wires were just held in place by spring pressure. (No screw) And that's where they were arcing.
So I wasted 2 or 3 months trying to track down a problem that was caused by a set of cheap points that cost a few bucks.
Gonna have to look into one of those electronic ignition kits....