51 John Deere M Intermittment miss, loss of power

ndgregor · Oct 2, 2017

I restored a 1951 John Deere M last year and it has been running great ever since. Recently however I have noticed it appears to randomly miss or sputter when running. It seems electrical to me, as it happens very quickly then recovers. It happens at random, both with and without a load as well as at low and high idle. I have also noticed a lack of power. It just doesn't seem to have the power it did before. Nothing has been worked on or changed recently, there are no obvious signs either (leaks/smoke/etc). Any ideas?

Mike M · Oct 2, 2017

Maybe a new set of spark plugs ?

pcsaw · Oct 3, 2017

Loose ignition wire ?

davediehl@hotmail.com · Oct 4, 2017

There is not many things that will make a random or irregular misfire or loss of power.Loss of fuel or ignition. 51 could have have been ordered with a coil or a mag. I'm going to guess you have a coil and distributor cap. The highest probability is the coil itself. Second would be the condenser under the cap. As reasonable as they are, I'd do a simple tuneup and change points and condenser first. Coils are around 25 bucks. But either way, sounds like a standard tuneup is in order. After that, you will be tracing wires and checking the key switch.
With the fuel system, make sure you don't have a "lawn mower" fuel filter in line. It restricts the flow of gas and starves the engine.

51 John Deere M Intermittment miss, loss of power

ndgregor

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Mike M

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pcsaw

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