cub stopped running

R

Rob in NH

501 Club
I bought another cub , its a 66 and came with a c-2 mower. It was running lousy I reset the points and it ran better but it would good and then start misfiring, changed the coil and that didn't help so I had a new condenser and installed it and fired right up and ran very good. Took it out to do some mowing, it ran strong and then stopped like I shut it off. Test light showed power to one side with the key on and no power to the other side when I turn it over. Do you think that the coil is bad ?
 
Rob in NH":1v98t0sh said:
Stopped like I shut it off. Test light showed power to one side with the key on and no power to the other side when I turn it over. Do you think that the coil is bad ?
Click to expand...
With ignition key on, you should have power to both key terminals. Both should be hot.

From your description, I'm thinking the ignition switch is the problem.
 
does the coil get Hot ??? if you have battery power with a volt meter on the power in side of coil , with the engine spinning the other side of the coil should flash with a test light as the points open and close, check the points, bad ground, broken points spring
 
The points are opening, I tried another coil and checked the power to both sides and the test light lit up on both sides. Put it back together and started it, fired once and died now it has no power to the negative side again.
 
what condition are the points ? they may open but are they burned etc, poor ground to the base of the distributor ?
 
I would take a piece of 400 grit sandpaper and run it between the point contacts then use some electrical connections cleaner to remove the corrosion and sandpaper traces.The contacts get burned overtime and as Tim stated they may not be getting good contact between the points.

NJ farmer
 
Rob: Do you have a multi-meter? Handy as all heck. With one you can easily locate the fault checking for voltage and continuity.

Harbor Freight has one for around $7-. Local hardware store has them for around $20-. I have one in the master toolboxes and one in each truck.
 
I changed the points, condenser was changed 2 weeks before that. I took the stud out of the distributor to check that and that seemed good , no corrosion on it. Would a bad condenser cause this no spark issue?
 
new condensers come from china mostly and many have been NG, the tune up kit sold like at tractors supply is a waste of $$$ poor quality
 
Rob in NH":28mrkpm6 said:
Would a bad condenser cause this no spark issue?
Click to expand...
Yes and no. A failing condenser may provide no spark or a weak yellow spark.

Since we are just guessing. Block the points open. Ignition on. Your test light. Test from hot side of points to ground. No light move up the circuit towards the ignition switch, testing each junction. When light lights, problem is from that point back towards the ignition points.

Multimeter, you can do a basic check on a condenser.
 
It ended up being the condenser after all. I had just replaced it too 2 weeks ago. Thanks for all the replies, i appreciate the help.
 
There are 2 modes of condenser failure and you just experienced both of them. When they fail “open circuit”, the tractor will usually run like crap but if they fail “short circuit”, they completely short out the ignition system and the tractor will not run, at all. It seems like there have been a lot of new condensers that were short circuit, right out of the box. I never trust the cheapie brands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top