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Denny: First off, let me say it's your tractor and you can darn sure do anything with it you want. I happen to a pony kind of guy. The 70D I have was bought used in 1969. From the first day on the farm, that pony did not want to start and run well. The main engine was great ! I told my Dad that John Deere wouldn't have put such a contraption on the market if it didn't work, and that I should look into that carburetor. He told me to leave it be, that the da-- thing was barely starting as it was and he didn't need to tinkering with it. 25 years went by, the barn fell on the tractor, and eventually the tractor made the move from my parent's farm to my place. I had that pony engine for two days and had it running better that ever. I had purchased a new distributor and carb kit. I installed the new ignition parts and rebuilt the carb. The load needle was corroded into the jet, and the idle passage was clogged. The cork float was deteriorated, and contributed to the clogging. There were two grains of wheat in the bowl (?!?). I cranked that engine about three turns and it roared to life with no problems at all. It kicked up to high speed and the governor worked correectly. I had never seen it move before !Because of the long time between teardowns, a seal eventually went bad on the rear main, so I tore it down for that. I installed new rings, honed the cylinders, ground the valves and seats, and cleaned out the oil drain holes in the heads. I also put new bearings, bushings, and seals in the transmission. I also rebuilt the water pump. It starts and runs so well, that I could not be happier with it. I think it's an easier system to maintain than a couple of huge batteries, a different generator/regulator, etc. No smoke, and it spins the diesel at about 200 rpm on compression, and it will do it all day long. Now I'm not trying to say that the electric start conversion is a bad thing, just that if your pony engine is in decent mechanical shape, I think you can get it to perform reliably with some attention to the ignition and carburetor. The smoking will probably require rings to fix. Pistons and rods are VERY expensive ($200+ ea for pistons and $100+ for rods), so if yours are still servicable, the rings are $40, the gasket set is $70, and the valve grind is around $40. Since I just got through with rebuilds on the diesel and cranking engines, I'd be happy to offer any advice and encouragement if you decide to try and spiff your pony engine. Frank-in-Tallahassee
70D // 855
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