I fired up my '53 SA one cold night because a nurse who takes care of my mother-in-law drove off our driveway and just needed a gentle pull to get out of the ditch.
So SA is sitting in my unheated shed. Starts right up and with a little feathering of the choke is running smoothly after 10 or 20 seconds. I get ready to hop on and it just dies suddenly. It did not sound like it had starved of fuel but more like the ignition was switched off. This is a 12V conversion with a key. I try to crank it back up but no go. I resort to using a different tractor and forget about SA.
Yesterday I got a chance to look at her. It was much warmer. Nothing pops out at me in visual inspection. I check spark from coil, it's fine. Pop open distributor -all is well. Try to start but still nothing. Pull a plug, spark is good.
So I move onto carburetor and find the problem almost immediately and, while carburetor-related, the problem's not at the carburetor. The problem was up by the steering wheel, something had fallen out. Ha. I was relieved to know it was a simple fix.
So SA is sitting in my unheated shed. Starts right up and with a little feathering of the choke is running smoothly after 10 or 20 seconds. I get ready to hop on and it just dies suddenly. It did not sound like it had starved of fuel but more like the ignition was switched off. This is a 12V conversion with a key. I try to crank it back up but no go. I resort to using a different tractor and forget about SA.
Yesterday I got a chance to look at her. It was much warmer. Nothing pops out at me in visual inspection. I check spark from coil, it's fine. Pop open distributor -all is well. Try to start but still nothing. Pull a plug, spark is good.
So I move onto carburetor and find the problem almost immediately and, while carburetor-related, the problem's not at the carburetor. The problem was up by the steering wheel, something had fallen out. Ha. I was relieved to know it was a simple fix.
