M-5

First, I want to thank everyone who gave me any advice of where to go to get my M5 to run right! The tractor would not run under load and sounded like it was running out of gas. The intake was icing up and I was chasing windmills.

New fuel line, took off the tank and cleaned it, new sediment bowl, cleaned and checked air cleaner and intake, new coil, and even a new carb!

Nothing worked.

I went back to the guy who had helped with the restoration with the original carb and talked about the trouble. He mentioned that the carb kit he was sent had a smaller valve seat that mine, and he left the original in the one he rebuilt. He took the original carb apart while I was there to show me what was inside. When he screwed out the main needle, he said, "Whoa, that sucker is bent". He tried to straighten it by "eye" and I went back to the farm.

I took the "new" carb off and put the "old" carb back on. No improvement. WTF!! Then a crazy thought hit me. The "old" carb had a bent needle, and the "new" carb *might* have a smaller valve seat like the carb kit sent to the mechanic.

I took out the needle from the "new" carb and put it in the "old" carb. Damned if the tractor doesn"t run just fine. Under load, up hill, idled down, etc.

Whew! It only took 6 or 8 months and a lot of input.

The guys who said "you"re not getting enough gas to the engine" were exactly correct. I just didn"t know why......

Well that wasnt so hard was it....(just kidding...) I know how it goes at times. Glad you got it running good. Sometimes it is the simplest things but the hardest to figure out. I have an M670 Super that wouldnt run right. I had rust in the tank, got a different one but it would only run about 1/3rd throttle, then I noticed a louder than normal clicking noise by the distributor when I was cranking it over. I traced it down to spark that was jumping from the top of the coil down to one of the coil terminals. Put on a different coil and it worked just fine. That was about 2 or 3 years ago.

LOL! No, not so hard, just took me forever to figure out (no, stumble upon) the solution to my frustration. Part of working with antique machinery that I knew nothing about as a kid. BTW, I went back to the farm today and drove the M5 again just to make sure it wasn't a dream. Still runs great! I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.