Sputtering B.......still

Here's what I did this weekend: drained the tank and cleaned up the sediment bowl and parts. Cleaned the carb and put it back together. Didn't find anything at all in the carb. Also, no particles of any size in the tank. I also tried a fuel line with a inline filter and one without, just in case something unusual was happening with that.
I have tried the suggested settings on the carb adjustment screws. Also tried several dozen variations on my own. I can get the thing to run pretty decent when I set the screws about 1 turn out, as long as I don't go up a hill. I even took the air cannister off in case it was clogged and preventing air to the carb. All that accomplished was to make the sputtering louder, almost sounds like a mini-backfire noise. Basically the sputtering/coughing comes out the carb air inlet.

Today I will check compression and the spark plugs. I cleaned the plugs already.

Assumptions: I'm assuming once any load is applied to the engine, the governer increases the throttle on the carb to get more power? Yes?
In this case, the load being going up a hill/incline.

Questions - could this be a timing issue? I haven't touched the distributer/magneto at all. How do I set timing? Is it like doing it on a car with a distributer (by loosening the nut and turning the dist?)

Obviously, I'm at my wits end. This is my first tractor, and now I'm starting to feel like I just wasted $1400. Of course any input/direction is greatly appreciated.

Matt

If you hear popping out the carb and you've tried a wide range of carb settings (the book said 1/2 but mine liked 2 1/4 turns) then the timing is too far advanced or you've got a sticky intake valve. Hope for the ignition first. At high throttle the timing should be at the F or Fire line in the left side of the tube. It's easier to see if you get it into the bottom port and paint it white or yellow.

First of all, set your point gap to .020 inches with the rub bar of the points on the top of a cam lobe.

To set the static timing initially, this is how I do it on my 1950 Model B with distributor:

1. Pull #1 plug wire and remove the plug.
2. Put finger in plug hole and have someone turn the engine with the hand crank until you feel air escaping from hole. This is cylinder #1 compression stroke.
3. Go to left side of tractor and look for a hole in the clutch housing between the two implement mounting bole holes. You should be able to see the flywheel through the hole.
4. Turn the motor very slowly with the hand crank until you see a line engraved on the flywheel that says "Fire". 5. Continue turning the motor for a few more degrees until you see another line engraved "Dead Center". Stop turning the engine with the line in the middle of the hole.
6. Go to the distributor and remove the cap. Make sure that the rotor is pointing toward the position of the #1 plug wire.
7. Loosen the bolts holding down the distributor and rotate the distributor clockwise about 1/8 of a turn.
8. The manual says to rotate the distributor counter-clockwise until the point gap is .001 inches, but since I don't have a feeler gauge that thin, I disconnect the primary ignition wire from the distributor. Then I put the probes of my multimeter on both sides of the points. As soon as the points break, the meter reads infinite resistance so I know that the points are open about .001 inches.
9. Tighten the distributor and you should be close on static timing.
10. Reconnect the primary ignition wire and replace the distributor cap. Replace the #1 plug and wire.

Also, something you might replace that is cheap are the points and condenser. Mine started skipping badly a couple of weeks ago. I replaced both of these and it smoothed out completely.

NOTE: I have always liked NAPA ignition parts, but found out the other day that the parts numbers for the distributor cap and rotor for the A-C Model B are wrong. Take your old parts with you if you decide to buy NAPA parts. They have the correct parts, only not the ones shown in the catalog.

Best of luck. The A-C B is a great little tractor. Don't give up on it. You will learn a lot just in the process of problem solving that will help you in the future.

If I take the points and condensor into NAPA, they can just tell by looking at them what correct part number to replace it with? Seems to me that they probably have several types that might look exactly like mine, so how would I know they will give me the proper replacement ones?

Might be a stupid question, but w/o going in with a part number, I'm a little leary that they can just look at the part and replace it exactly.

Thanks.

Also check to see if it is a magneto (one wire to each plug only) or distributor (one wire to each plug and an extra one from coil). You could have a bad capacitor if distibutor espicially if its a 12 Volt conversion. (I'm not familar enough with magnetos to know if they even have a capacitor but chances are good if it has points it will have a capacitor somewhere.) If the capacitor is bad it won't run right and cause burned points (I think you mentioned cleaning the points in your other thread.)

Another thing to check is your plugs. Be sure they are the ones called for (some people here have claimed certain plugs makes are more prone to problems than others) and gapped properly.

If its still sputtering with black smoke after all that try setting your main mixture adjustment to half a turn off the seat. You can play with this quite a bit. If you have a good ear you can listen to the tractor and set the mixture to give the smoothest sound. Others use a tach or even a vacuum gauge and set the mixture to give the highest reading. You'll have to do it for both idle mixture with the engine at idle and again on the main jet with the engine running a good clip. One word of warning, its OK to run it lean to check if the sputtering goes away but be aware that running an engine too lean long term can cause it to run hot and make for big problems down the road so play with it but don't get carried away.

Good luck and don't give up hope. That it runs at all is a *good* sign!

I must have a distributor, because my cap has the traditional wire in the center running over to a coil. I wasn't sure what I had since I've never seen a magneto before. But, from your description, I have a distributor. Of course it looked like a distributor to me, but then again, I didn't want to assume. Mine is converted to 12 volt. I'll try replacing the points and rotor and cap. The points weren't hardly worn at all. I just cleaned them for the sake of doing it. It sputtered before cleaning them, and of course now too. I'll try adjusting the timing.

How do you crank the engine by hand if you don't have the crank handle?

Off to NAPA to see what they have.

Matt

If you don't have a hand crank, the easiest method to turn the engine over is to remove all the plugs and then turn the front crank pully by hand (if the engine is real loose you may be able to turn it without pulling the plugs but its not worth the sweat to me). The pully probably has the shoulders for a hand crank so you can tell which direction to turn it from that (I never can remember off the top of my head).

Good luck and keep at it.