Off brand help

[Chuck]

Okay I know what the problem is, I bought a green and yellow machine just to break up all the red and now I'm payin for my foolishness!
Hope one of you guys can help with my problem though. Late model styled JD L with the JD motor. Ran good and started good (hand crank only, no electrics) just looked a bit ratty. I used the tractor for a summer and about a half pulling the reel mowers and making some minor repairs, mainly leaky seals and gaskets, before I decided to tear her down for a paint job. I had the tractor down for about a year trying to find the time to get it finished and back together. Now comes the curse of the green and yellow. She looks great but now refuses to start and run.
Here's the highlights of the situaton. I never touched the mag and I put in new plugs and wires. I have good spark and I have check to see that it is timed as the manual says. Carb is clean and all seems well with it save the final fine tuning that will need to be done after shes a runner. I have checked the valve adjustment and even thought I may have had a valve not seating but this also has been proven out not to be the case. I have a hose which screws into the spark plug hole I use to pressurize the cylinders, if the valses aren't seating you get a nice breeze out of the intake or exhaust manifold.
Today I had a friend of mine tow me (with my golf cart so ya know it didn't take much) and it started right up within 10 ft.! She ran fair at medium throttle so the thinking was to just drive her around for a bit to get everything lubed up well and loosened up again. After about 45 min. I figured she had time to get good and warm (was in the low 90's today) so I brought her down to a bit slower idle (perhaps 1/4 throttle) and then when I gave her a bit more juice she just laid down and died.
I had hoped a turn or 2 of the crank would bring her back but no such luck. Additionally, compression felt nearly non-existant when canking her hot.
I have never had this much trouble with any other engine, big or small, and I really don't know what to think next.
Ran good, started good, sat for about a year wainting for time to finish paint and reassembly, now this!
Sorry for the long post I'm just hoping someone on this board may have an idea. Oh yeah, I have posted on a couple of the green and yellow boards but I'm not getting much for responses.
Hope this thing hasn't become the prettiest yard ornament/planter on the block!

[Bigdog]

Chuck, what kind of spark are you getting out of the mag? If it isn't bright blue and at least 3/8" long, clean and set the points. The compression may come up after you run it for a while.

[Eugene]

Added to BigDog's post. Check the valve stem - tappet clearance again. To tight - loss of compression when engine warms up.

Starting with magneto - do you hear the impulse tripping when you crank the engine by hand? If not the impulse is probably stuck in the full advanced (normal) position. With this condition you can pull the tractor to a start - engine over ??250 rpm. Once the engine drops below the preset rpm the impuse kicks back in resetting the spark advance to TDC.

As far as getting little or no response from the John Deere board - er - just keep you mouth shut Eugene.

Eugene

[Marion(57 Loboy)]

Perhaps the idle circuit in the carb is plugged up!

That may explain why it runs off idle but not AT idle.

[Chuck]

Turns out she was just flat wore out! Don't know why it never gave me problems before it sat for a year but now I know what the problem is.
Supposed to have .015-.020 end gap on rings---I have every bit of 3/16!
All else looked suprisingly good though so new rings and I think I'll be back in business. Then on to another off color machine, an Allis G!