Flooded?

Hello tractor pros- my 37 B will start (hand) and run roughly for less than a minute then quit. I can't start it over after that. Any suggestions on what to look for? Is it possible i have flooded it, or carb adjustment? Thanks in advance

I'm not even an amateur but will take a crack at it until a pro responds. When it's running, does it blow black smoke like the mixture is too rich? Could be a choke that isn't opening all the way; you'd have
to take off the intake tube at the carb and see/feel if it is. Does it blow mostly fuel out of the petcocks when you try to restart? If so, probably flooded. Shut off gas, open drain in carb to drain bowl.
Close, turn fuel on and try it right away. If it starts and eventually blows black and dies, it could be a float sinking or adjustment needed. But first, even if it does blow black, check for adequate fuel
flow. It should run out in a steady pencil sized stream. If that's OK, remove bowl valve and screw in a barbed fitting and stick a foot long clear tube on it. Bend tube up alongside carb bowl. The gas in
the tube will be the same as the level in the bowl, which should be almost to the top of the bowl. If it goes higher, the float isn't closing the needle valve, if it's lower the float is out of adjustment.
Otherwise, there are exactly 1 zillion + 1 ways the carb could have something plugged up. If I suspect this on any of mine, I take it to a local carb shop where 1) they have experience with Marvel Scheibler 2
cylinder carbs and 2) get their parts from Roberts Carb. Soaking one of these in cleaner overnight or until the 2nd coming will not clean them adequately. Now, hopefully someone who knows something will
chime in with something useful. Good luck, that's a good old timer you have there!

Thanks for the good advice. I'll go through those steps and see what happens.

Susan Diane gave good advice, but I would try basic troubleshooting first. Pull the plugs set them on block somewhere to get a good ground. Roll the motor over and check spark, it should be blue colored. You may need to shade yourself to see this if it's sunny and outside. Weak or yellow spark, or even no spark means ignition trouble and that can give the appearance of flooding at times as there isn't hot enough spark to do a good job of ignition.

Also, when you pull the plug check them. If the plug is dark and wet, you're too rich. If it is tan to whitish, you're too lean.

Then cover the plug hole with your thumb to check compression. It should be able to pretty much blow your thumb back on the compression stroke. You will need help to check the other side. This is assuming you do not have a compression gauge.

This should narrow your issue down to either ignition, fuel or compression. Once you determine that, then we can get more specific on what to do.

My email is open. Contact me and I will
send emails / attachments, which will
contain the Marvel Schleber repair manual
and SM2024, the Deere carb repair manual.
They both cover both DTLX and TSX, I
think-I'd have to look.

Thanks Lon, sent you an email. I'm getting fuel to carb, spark plugs are black and wet so guess was running rich. Have good compression...