BCS 290 two wheel tractor with no spark

dosha9 · Jun 1, 2017

I just picked up an old BCS tractor in a trade. The guy said it had a full service two years ago, but had been sitting for a year. He said it should run, and seemed like an honest guy, so I took his word for it and made the trade. When I got it home and tried to start it, I got nothing; not even a pop or sputter. so I took it to a small engine repair shop out in the country, and the guy said he'd never seen one before, and after cleaning the carb and trying to start it with no success, he stopped and said he'd need to charge more to take it apart to find an electrical issue. He says there's no spark. I think I should be able to figure this out myself, with the help of somebody thats knowledgeable about BCS ACME engines. Any advise would be much appreciated.

T.R.K. · Jun 2, 2017

If your engine guy has never seen one like it before, your BCS tiller probably has an ACME engine on it. (Until I saw one, I thought the Acme company was just on the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote cartoon.) I remember doing the research to find parts for a BCS with Acme engine several years ago. Seems like there was only one place in the entire country you could get parts. In Kentucky, maybe.

Find out for sure what engine you have. Most of the new BCS tillers have Honda engines on them. It should have been old hat for your engine guy to fix a Honda, if it was a Honda on it. Get in touch with (I think) 'BCS America'-they should have a website and hopefully it has a phone number on it, or you can e-mail them or something. Find out what they say about it.

Absent Minded Farmer · Jun 3, 2017

Hello! Check out the link below. I noted they have Acme parts when I was looking at the round baler attachment on their website a few days ago. I've had dealings with Earth Tools before & have nothing but good things to say about dealing with them.

Good Luck!
Mike
Good Help From KY.....

dosha9 · Jun 3, 2017

Good call on the acme engine. it's a 290 WB from like, the 70' or 80'. I decided to take it home to tinker with in my spare time. I was able to fix the spark issue today, but now it seems to also have some type of fuel line blockage. the carburetor looks good, and gets fuel, but there's something between the the carb and the piston chamber.

Russ from MN · Jun 4, 2017

Take it apart and clean the points, it's very common for them to have some oxidation on them after sitting.

dosha9 · Jun 7, 2017

(quoted from post at 15:38:13 06/04/17) Take it apart and clean the points, it's very common for them to have some oxidation on them after sitting.

So I soaked the points in alcohol overnight, and I now have spark, but all I get is a small puff of smoke and sputter. I just cleaned the carburetor out. Could it be a compression issue?

Bret4207 · Jun 8, 2017

Could be compression, as in rings, but if it's been sitting it also could be a valve not closing all the way or a blockage in the exhaust (think mud daubers).

Russ from MN · Jun 11, 2017

Squirt some oil in the spark plug hole, It will give it more compression. I was given an old Wisconsin that I couldn't start, and that's how I got it running.

BCS 290 two wheel tractor with no spark

dosha9

New User

T.R.K.

Well-known Member

Absent Minded Farmer

Well-known Member

dosha9

New User

Russ from MN

Well-known Member

dosha9

New User

Bret4207

Well-known Member

Russ from MN

Well-known Member

Similar threads