Farmall Cub

Second time this has happened....After a couple of hours of mowing the 57 starts to lack a little power and then proceeds to get worse....I shut it down, checked the gas flow (pulled plug on the bottom of carb) and its fine....I dumped some carb injector cleaner in and refilled the tank ( I did this before and thought it was rectified)....It wouldn't start but fired and tried hard....It has done this once before....Since then I have plowed and york raked and even mowed once with no problems....So I went to the barn and got the 53 and finished mowing.....(Great reason for having 2 Cubs with mowers, I do take the one on and off the 57 at times).....Anyhow by the time I finished The 57 started right up and I put it away....I'm thinking coil and I found one on Ebay for 14.95....So I ordered it....But any ideas from the varsity will be appreciated.... Dave

Hi Dave...my '58 is starting to do the exact same thing this summer. I can mow with my flail mower for about and hour and a half to 2 hours, then I start to lose power and have to limp back to the tractor shed. The next day she's fine...starts right up and I can mow again.

IMHO, the coil is a great place to start. That's what I am going to try when I get the chance.

Blair

Hi Blair, I'll keep you posted....I just spread a tri-axle load of soil and was going to york rake it with the 57, and try it out again (its running fine at the moment) but the skys opened up and it'll have to wait for a day or ? to try it....Still waiting on the coil....Dave

Dave:

Sounds like the coil but while you are in there you might want to check the points and condenser as well.

Yeh thanks Rudy, I'll do that but its hard to find the problem cause it won't stay ker-bobbled.....As soon as it cools off a bit its fine....Blair seems to have the same situation .....So I'll take all the advice I can get and just keep pluggin away till it straightens out....It does need a good tune up, but I was hoping to wait until fall if possible...Anyhow thanks for the input....Dave....

Dave:

That is the classic symptoms of a coil going south. Not a hard job, usually takes about 1/2 hour or so from start to finish.

Yep,I hope, Just waiting on West Star Supply to send it......14.95 + shipping for a 6 volt coil....Not bad....Suppossed to be here Monday the 8th....I'll check the points and condenser also....Only thing is no backfiring...That puzzles me a bit....Dave

next time it cuts off pull the wire from the center post on the cap hold it about 1/2 inch away from a good clean ground, turn engine over and see if you have a blue spark

Retarded timing and low coolant will cause overheating. The cub MUST have proper coolant level for any circulation of coolant. There is no water pump and it circulates buy convection.

Bus Driver wrote:Retarded timing and low coolant will cause overheating. The cub MUST have proper coolant level for any circulation of coolant. There is no water pump and it circulates buy convection.

I dont think it is overheating Just running poorly after it is worked for an hour or so. If it were low in coolant it would over heat in a short time. I guess one of us misread the post

sounds like mine today, after getting some advice from a first class ih mechanic i found the problem. it turned out to be the cap, the 4 contacs were all corroded, cleaned them off and it runs fine again.

Thanks for the replies guys....I'll check the cap out, Rob and clean it up....Hi Boss, I'll pull the wire and check it if it happens again....I got to do some York Raking ( Actually with the rake I bought from you) so that should have it running for a lengthy time and I'll see if it happens then....Actually the mower I got from you and put on the 53, has been saving the day when the 57 ker-poots.....I got it all painted up and put new blades on it...Work great....Only thing is I have to be careful with the stack on the 53 going under the trees mowing.....The 57 is a lo-boy underslung...And it hasn't been overheating Busdriver....Actually I just put a new radiator on it last fall however a dose of that red bottle stuff that reduces water temperature wouldn't hurt...Once again congrats on the new job Boss....Dave

Just read a post about the ceramic resistors......I have one of the round jobbies they called a voltage reducer at Napa in front of my coil to reduce it from 12 to 6.....Need to check on that ...It may be the culprit as well....

Boss Hog wrote:next time it cuts off pull the wire from the center post on the cap hold it about 1/2 inch away from a good clean ground, turn engine over and see if you have a blue spark

Hi Boss..would a blue spark be a good thing to see, or bad?

Blair

Blair:

Blue good .. Yellow bad