TO30 overheating?

KsPete

New User
Back again regarding my new-to-me TO30. I decided to try again to see how well (or
not) it was running. I tried the rear blade again and as long as I used first gear,
it worked well enough. Then I hooked up a 3pt dirt scoop to fill some holes in the
drive, and it actually worked quite well. I'd been working for half an hour or so,
then all of a sudden it started missing and backfiring and losing power. I nursed
it back to its parking spot and shut it down. I let it set for an hour or so, then
started it back up. It started fine and seemed to run fine. I drove it a little bit
but did not work it. It seemed to be okay. Was it overheating? The gauge didn't
indicate that it was. The antifreeze has a thin film of rust on the surface. This
tractor has been sitting for the most part for the past year or so. In my previous
post, I received some good advice on what to check and I will be doing that before
I use it again. I'm new to this and any further advice would be greatly
appreciated.
 
If it was overheating, it would have been steaming and blowing out the overflow.

It probably has a contaminated gas tank, or ignition problems.

Make sure the gas cap is vented, try loosening it.
 
KsPete, I recently bought a TO20, the governor isn't working right on it. It won't pick up as the load increases, I have to throttle it up with the dash lever. I have a Ford tractor that would act up like you describe, and that turned out to be the coil, HOWEVER, in that case it would act up after 10 or 15 minutes, not an hour. Your case sounds like a fuel delivery problem. I haven't tried setting up my governor yet, I spend too much time on this site :)
 
My Ford 640 experienced the same symptoms some years back. I finally decided that the coil was the problem and decided to replace it. While just starting to disconnect the hot wire from the coil, the wire broke at the connector on the coil. I replaced the broken wire with a new piece of heavier gauge wire and the tractor has worked fine for a number of years since then (still with the original coil.)

Apparently any wire or contact(s) in an ignition switch can corrode after 50 or 60 years.
 
I think it's probably a fuel delivery issue. The tank seems to be pretty rusty, so I'm going take it off, clean it and line it with Red Kote or something similar. If that doesn't do it, I'll check the coil and anything else electrical. Just got to find the time to do it.
 

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