Ford 2000 not starting

Ford 2000; 3 cyl. gas; 4/1 trans....Needed to use my tractor today and got it to run for maybe 5 seconds and then it dies and won't restart. It has sat for maybe a month or so since last being run. Battery is fully charged. I slightly moved the distributer one way and then back the other since the rotor looks like it has been contacting on the corner of the brass contact rather than somewhere in the middle. Wiped out the distributor cap and the rotor is good. It's full of fresh non-ethanol gas, new starter cable, and tight electrical contacts. I know I've flooded it now so am letting it dry out. The initial sucessfull crank this morning was with no throttle and no choke. I have some starter spray that I can shoot into the intake but don't like cranking it that way. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Forgot to say that I have an electronic ignition kit that I have not yet installed. Will that make it generally easier to start or is it not a factor?? Thanks.

Do some simple trouble shooting and you only need a wench to do it.

#1 make sure you have a good blue/white spark at all the plugs and also at the center wire of the cap that will jump a 1/4 gap or more. If you have that got to #2. If you do not check that your points open and close as they should and are set correctly. Also make sure when you open the point by hand with the switch on you see a spark. No spark means the point need to be cleaned or replaced.

#2. Pull the carb drain plug and check for gas flow. You should have a flow that will fill a pint jar in under 3 minutes and yes catch it.
#3 when was the last time your serviced the air cleaner it maybe clogged up

Great instructions, going out to do it now. Many thanks.

There's a little gas filter just before you get to the carb. It is about the size of a shotgun shell.
In my case I have to take that apart about every two years and clean the gel and gunk out of it. It's
re-useable, doesn't require replacement.

Breaking news....without taking any of the steps from Old yet, I tried cranking it again this afternoon and it did crank up. I let it run for a while just to exercise the engine a bit and then it cut off on me. Probably ran 15-20 minutes at mostly full throttle. I noticed that there was a lot of water blowing and boiling out of the muffler seams. Water, condensation maybe, was dripping off the rain cap and out of the bottom of the muffler. I assume this was condensation within the muffler but also wondered if the heavy rains we had earlier this week might have pushed some water down into the engine via the exhaust which might have affected the cranking? Seems like this is unlikely but thought I'd throw that question out to see if it has any merit. Once the muffler got hot, no more water.

I'll look for that filter that cdmn mentioned but don't remember seeing anything like that nor a glass bowl on my carb. Previous owner put a standard, inline metal filter in the fuel line and that's easy enough to change out. It's pretty clear my tractor has had a hard life and had a bunch of mods, many of them poorly done.

This forum is a fantastic resource. Many thanks for your input.

(quoted from post at 11:14:37 04/08/17) There's a little gas filter just before you get to the carb. It is about the size of a shotgun shell.
In my case I have to take that apart about every two years and clean the gel and gunk out of it. It's
re-useable, doesn't require replacement.

Click to expand...

Any idea where I could find a replacement for the filter behind the carb?

I've looked and haven't been able to find one on-line.

I'm happy to report back to the forum that I got my Ford 2000 cranked and it still cranks when I go out to try it on different days. I found a mechanic from a local tractor company who would make a house call for a very nominal cost and he thought the fuel tank cutoff valve might be full of gunk causing poor fuel flow. I knew that the filter that sits on top of this valve was laying in the bottom of the tank so it was no surprise when I took the valve off, that a bunch of gunk was in the valve. Installed a new one, with filter on top, and it cranked immediately. The mechanic said that my no-crank symptoms 9 times out of 10 were caused by a clogged tank valve. He was right again. I do not have a glass bowl filter device and I have not yet taken the filter out of the side of the carb. Gonna tackle that filter this week and will not be surprised to find it full of trash also. Stay tuned.

Is it being gravity fed from the tank through the in-line filter to the carb? The original fuel system on that tractor had a mechanical fuel pump up at the front of the engine. The fuel line from the tank went forward to the fuel pump and another line from the fuel pump went to the glass sediment bowl next to the carb, and finally a short line from the sediment bowl assembly was connected to the carb inlet.

There were originally 3 or 4 filters, one on top of the shutoff valve inside the tank, one in the top of the fuel pump, one in the sediment bowl assembly and the last one, which it might or might not have, is inside the fitting where the line from the sediment bowl enters the carb.

I thought the fuel was gravity fed via vacuum from the intake manifold but the mechanic said there was a fuel pump at the front of the engine of all the 2000 3 cylinder models but hard to see and access. I had looked for it before thinking I would change out that filter but didn't want to take the front of the tractor off to get to it if possible. The fuel flows thru the filter on top of the tank cutoff valve to an inline filter and the line then disappears around toward the front of the engine and then reappears sort of behind the carb. No glass sediment bowl/filter although I have purchased one to go in the fuel line. Not yet installed it. I have not disconnected the fuel line where it goes into the carb so do not know if there is a filter there or not. Rumor has it that there is. Just went out to crank the tractor and it fired off with the first turn of the key. Joy to the world, I'm back in business! Thanks for everyone's input.

How do you verify spark at the plug and from the coil?

(quoted from post at 10:56:01 04/08/17) Do some simple trouble shooting and you only need a wench to do it.

#1 make sure you have a good blue/white spark at all the plugs and also at the center wire of the cap that will jump a 1/4 gap or more. If you have that got to #2. If you do not check that your points open and close as they should and are set correctly. Also make sure when you open the point by hand with the switch on you see a spark. No spark means the point need to be cleaned or replaced.

#2. Pull the carb drain plug and check for gas flow. You should have a flow that will fill a pint jar in under 3 minutes and yes catch it.
#3 when was the last time your serviced the air cleaner it maybe clogged up

Click to expand...