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Just went though this myself with a '48 VAC. Make sure you have spark. Remove a plug wire from a plug, pull the boot back a ways until you can see the metal connector. Hold the wire an inch or two away from a bolt or some other CLEAN metal surface and watch for a spark when someone else turns the tractor over. Repeat for each of the four plug wires. If you have spark, make sure your plugs are clean and gapped to .020. If you don't have spark, you need to figure out why. Check to make sure that with the starting switch in the on position you have voltage at the coil, and that the coil is still connected to the distributor. Check to make sure the distributor cap is on securely and correctly. Check the points and condensor. If you don't know when the points and condensor were last changed, you might want to swap them out. I spent about $10 on points and a condensor at the local NAPA store. It took about 20 minutes to change them, and I'd never changed either part before. A bad condensor has tripped up some of the best mechanics. Since it's so cheap and easy to swap, it's a good place to start. While you're in the distributor, check the rotor out. Again, it's a cheap part that's easy to swap and critical to the electrical system. If all of the above checks out, you should have spark. If you had spark all along, and the plugs are good, it's probably a air/fuel problem. Start by making sure you have gas flowing freely to the carb by removing the hose going to the carb from the tank (via the sediment bowl). Assuming you have plenty of fuel getting to the carb, check to make sure that the breather is free of debris. You might actually want to remove the bottom part of the breather to make sure there is plenty of air getting to the carb. Is there any chance someone played around with the carb settings? If so you will probably have to reset the carb to get the mix right. Most of the time the tractor will still start though, even if the carb isn't set perfectly. As someone else pointed out, draining the sediment bowl and carb might help if the problem is stale fuel. If you end up playing around with the carb, you might as well do this. While you are at it, make sure there is no debris in the sediment bowl. Older cork gaskets tend to fall apart and get some junk into the bowl that can clog up the fuel flow. Someone recommended a different type - rubber I think - that holds up better. Also, there may or may not be a filter screen in the sediment bowl as well. Again, this may be clogged (if it's there). In my case this screen had been removed at some point in the past. We put one in along with the new gasket. Hope that helps. If you still can't get it running, you're in the right place. The folks here were great help for getting details I didn't have handy when working on my father's tractor, and they are great for bouncing ideas off of when troublshooting odd issues as well!
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