4600 SU sat for 2 years, what do I need to check now?

It's me again! I had the flat tire with the leaking ballast fluid. What a mess, and of course the floor jack was bad too and would not lift the rear end. So, I swapped the valve core with the valve stem in the down position and of course lost quite a bit of fluid from the flat tire. As it turns out for my purposes I don't need the fluid. I plan to dump an equal amount of fluid from the other tire and call it a day. So far the tire is holding pressure. This has been a comedy of errors getting that tire fixed.

I charged the battery expecting it to be bad, but I got the tractor to turn over. The tractor is gasoline and had fuel stabilizer in it. The beauty started up after a choke. About 30 minutes of mowing it started sputtering and died.



I removed this which I think is a fuel filter bowl. It had a lot of junk in the bottom that I cleaned out. The tractor started up but I hurried back to the barn to work on it there.

What do you recommend I do first? Is there a fuel filter on this? open the carb and clean it? Just use up the gas that is in the tank and then get a fresh tank? What is the easiest way to drain the tank?

Upon closer inspection I notice that mice have had a field day gnawing on rubber covers and packing the body with acorns and pecans. The varmints even ate some bondo off a repair on my 8N. :evil:

There are 3 or 4 fuel filters in that fuel system. The first is a screen up above the fuel shutoff valve. It is part of the shutoff valve assemble that sticks up inside the tank. The second is another screen in the top of the mechanical fuel pump that is located on the front left of the engine. The third filter is inside the sediment bowl that you point to with the arrow in your picture. The fourth filter, if it has it, would be inside the fitting whee the sediment bowl connects to the body of the carb.

From your symptoms, it sounds like you may have one of a couple of different problems.

You may have have debris floating around in the gas tank that is eventually getting sucked into the first screen inside the tank itself and clogging it. If you let it sit not running for several minutes, some of the debris floats away and allows the gas to flow again and you can start and run it for a while until the gunk gets sucked into the screen again and clogs it up.

The second possibility is that the coil is starting to go bad. That can cause the coil to short out when it is hot and not be able to deliver a spark, but then when it cools down it works properly again. To test this, get a can of freeze spray, and the next time it happens, spray the coil liberally to cool it down quickly and see if it will start and run again sooner than if you didn't cool it off like that.

The coil went bad as you suggested about 8 years ago and was maddening to figure out the source of the problem. The tractor would just die randomly usually far from the barn only to start back up when I showed it to my father :lol:

As I recall the tractor died suddenly like the key had been turned off and that is not what is happening here. It sounds fuel starved. I will track down those screens in search of some dirt.

The coil went bad as you suggested about 8 years ago and was maddening to figure out the source of the problem. The tractor would just die randomly usually far from the barn only to start back up when I showed it to my father :lol:

As I recall the tractor died suddenly like the key had been turned off and that is not what is happening here. It sounds fuel starved. I will track down those screens in search of some dirt.

Friend had same trouble. It was the filter at the fuel pump. Not sure why it needs a fuel pump. The carb is below the tank and it is a direct shot to it.

(quoted from post at 23:16:20 05/03/22) Friend had same trouble. It was the filter at the fuel pump. Not sure why it needs a fuel pump. The carb is below the tank and it is a direct shot to it.

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If you are driving the tractor up a hill with the tank less than 1/4 full it may die on you if it were not for that pump.

I tried starting the tractor today and it was acting the same. It would start with a choke, run for about 10 seconds then die.

Then I put 3 gallons of gas in the tank. The tractor started up and runs without dying.

Hmm

Adding the gas could have stirred things up and dislodged any gunk that might have been clogging the screen on top of the shutoff valve. Run it for a while and see if it eventually starts having the problem again.