Eugene wrote:lazyuniondriver wrote:Give it a week or two, you'll get the urge to tinker with it again, not wanting to let a simple machine get the best of you.
I don't think there is anything seriously wrong since the tractor was running 5 days previous.
I've gone back to page one of your trip and after all we have checked and tested, I concur with Eugene that there was probably nothing seriously wrong with your tractor to begin with and there is still nothing seriously wrong with it other than the smoked starter.
I tend to think originally damp weather combined with an engine in need of a tune up fitted with marginal parts prevented the tractor from starting.
You mentioned the tractor was never good at being hand crank started to begin with. The worse the engine is out of tune, the less chance of you successfully cranking it up by hand.
You have come to a fork in the road that is going to cost you money. If you sell the tractor as is, you'll get beat up on the non-running price costing you money as you cannot defend the engine, trans, finals, or hydraulic systems condition. This should prompt you to spend the money on the repair parts to get you up and running and keep the tractor too.
Hand cranking this tractor with air, fuel, and ignition systems all tampered with will be very difficult to say the least.
Pull the starter and replace it with a known good replacement or preferably, have yours rebuilt.
Get a new battery or have yours load checked and if in serviceable condition, have it fully charged.
If the battery cables have been replaced with anything less than what came from the factory, remove and replace. If the cables are of the proper size, replace the ends if they are not in perfect condition.
Leave the points and condenser alone for the time being since we have spark. Since we believe dampness caused all this grief to begin with, buy a cap, rotor, plugs, and wires.
Remove the plugs, remove the distributor cap and replace the rotor.
Since the plug wires have been off and on frequently, we need to make sure they are not a problem. Crank the engine to number one coming up on compression, stopping when the mag clicks lining up the timing pointer on the pulley notch as you described you did previously.
Install your new correctly gapped plugs.
Move to the distributor and verify the rotor is pointing to the position of number one on the cap tower. Snap the cap on and route the first wire from the tower of the cap the rotor is pointed at to the number one plug.
Follow the cap clockwise, next cap tower wire to plug three, next cap tower wire to plug four, the last wire to plug two. Add the coil wire but not before checking the inside of the coil wire tower on the mag for dirt and corrosion, cleaning if necessary.
The closed throttle plate doesn't sound legit since it was running 5 days ago but since you've had the carb off, double check to ensure the choke pull rod is on the front choke shutter and the throttle rod from the front governor rockshaft is on the top throttle plate. Also until it starts, leave the kill switch wire disconnected although I doubt the switch or wiring is to blame.
With the fuel on, speed control lever halfway forward and with no choke, transmission in neutral, pull the starter. Hopefully success.
Once it starts, let it fast idle to operating temperature then make your idle mixture and curb idle adjustments.
If it cranks for 10 seconds but fails to give an indication of any attempt to start, stop cranking for a minute to cool the starter.
Close the choke and crank for another 10 seconds. If it doesn't start or is dripping gas, chances are something in your carb rebuild job went amiss.
Pull the carb, rebuild it using a fresh rebuild kit and no used gaskets. Reinstall and retry the starting procedure over again starting without choke. If you have access to a spare carb known to be fully functional, swapping them out now would be wise.
We all know this will set you back close to a couple of Benjamin's however spending the money now will provide you a tuned tractor for several years and a good starter for another 50 or 60.
Good luck and let us know what happens once you get everything straightened out.