Woods mower drags engine

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

This is a Woods L59 on a Farmall A. In neutral, the blades
come up to cutting speed. In gear, the blades only come up
to half speed and the engine drags down 30-50%. I found
some Old posts that talked about the engine running too rich.
I adjusted the float in the carb but it hasnt helped. Thoughts?

Dave BN · Apr 30, 2022

My BN runs my L59 just fine unless I get into real thick or tall grass. So your A should too. If your engine isn't weak I would try adjusting the governor per the book. That is that the governor to carburetor linkage adjustment is correct and the max speed is set to 1540 RPM's. Does your A seem to handle other loads ok? How long have you had the tractor and mower? Did it ever handle the mower ok? Let us know.
Dave

Geo-TH,In · Apr 30, 2022

The L59 mower was used on a Farmall C.5 ft.
The farmall A may have had a 4 ft woods.
Does the A have about 12 hp?
The farmall H used a 6 ft mover. ..
I put a 6 ft mower on my farmall C, Does the C have about 20 hP?
Does a great job in first gear.
In heavy grass, second gear is pushing the engine...

caterpillar guy · Apr 30, 2022

Float would not help that problem. Might try the screw in the carb but not the float. Lots of options could cause that. Shot bearings slipping belt slipping clutch tired engine lack of fuel flow to carb timing. There a whole list of things to try.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Bought it five days ago. The first day, it ran well enough to cut a few swaths, just kind of playing. The second day it began dragging the engine down. The carburetor: the seller used full choke to start it, about 45 degrees outside and I think it had been running before we arrived. Starting it a few times at home, gas poured out the carb (not every time). Today I adjusted the float to lessen the gas in the bowl. Too far. Engine surged and stalled. Adjusted it again. Ran beautifully unless pto engaged. Seeing Old old post, I adjusted float again to cut the gas a bit. No change to the pto issue. I dont know that I should keep messing with the float.

Geo-TH,In · Apr 30, 2022

My Farmall c has only one fuel mix screw which is totally backwards. If you crank the screw all the way in, your fuel mix is richer, not leaner like most carbs. It takes more fuel to make HP.
I have the adjustment screw all the way out to lean it out.

When I bought the tractor someone had the screw all the way in and my plugs turned black in 10 minutes..

So pull your plugs and see if they are gray or black..
Gray is good lean mix. Black is bad, too rich.

Too lean and you don't make good hp under load...

Bad point and cond will cause the engine to lose hp too..

Try pulling on choke when mowing and see if more fuel makes more hp or less.

37 chief · Apr 30, 2022

Are your blades sharp? Don't take full cuts in heavy grass, may help. Stan

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Pulling choke stalled it. Ill check the screw adjustment as you suggested. Would there be anything to try with the timing?

used red MN · Apr 30, 2022

Have you checked the actual flow of fuel out of the drain on the carb? Many times when these old tractors set around the fuel condenses moisture in the tank the tank rusts and ..barnacles.. rust and crud build up. Then when you start using it jostling around the fuel in the tank washes this stuff of the inside of the tank and it start to plug things in the fuel system. Take a good flashlight and look down in tank see if there is anything down there to plug off the fuel flow into the sediment bowl. Is also can find its way into the needle of float shut off and then it intermittently does as you described the gas runs out of the carb when the engine is off. The gas can run out and seem like a lot but can fool you into the wrong impression. So often the ..knee jerk.. reaction is to out smart the design of the carb and set the float to a level where the carb just does not work. Seems like your experience. Hopefully you know or have learned what Catguy stated that the main fuel mixture screw is what is adjusted to control the air fuel mix to the engine. What I would like you to check as mentioned above how much fuel is actually getting to the carb? You should be able to fill a pint jar in 3 minutes. That is also MINUS what initially flows out of the contents of the carb fuel bowl. Also there is a screen in the elbow fitting that the fuel line hooks to on the carb. Take that out and check for plugging. Another thing is the oil bath air cleaner be in need of service and restricting air flow, but that would normally give you black smoke at the exhaust. I will email you some useful literature.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Yup. Sharpened the blades and greased the spindles. It drags down when the mower is up in the air away from the grass altogether.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Thanks for the input. I will track the fuel as you suggested. I did replace the air filter oil bath and I changed the engine oil and filter before playing around with it the first day.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Thanks for the reply. I like a puzzle but I like them best when solved.

Geo-TH,In · Apr 30, 2022

I have a timing light. I've Never checked mine. Not sure where the timing mark is..
My Jubilee needed points, worn out. It wouldn't make power until I replaced the points and set the timing..

If you only have one fuel mix screw, back it out. I have mine backed out all the way on the Farmall C to lean out fuel..

If your plugs are black, that also says you need less fuel and more air..

Check the oil bath breather. Sounds like you need less fuel and more air..

oldproudvet · Apr 30, 2022

I've mentioned this before but a carburetor is a French word meaning leave it alone, usually good advice. No power under load usually is a weak spark, start with the point gap. To wide or to close will drastically affect spark Larry

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Plugs, wires and coil all look fairly new. Ill check the gaps and try to keep my hands off the carb!
Dave

Steve@Advance · Apr 30, 2022

First thing to check is the governor function.

Engine off, dash lever set to fast, the carb throttle plate should be in the wide open position.

Engine running at idle, while watching the carb, suddenly push the dash lever to full speed, you should see the throttle instantly go wide open, then modulate back to full governed speed, 1400 RPM.

Also check the distributor. Check the centrifugal advance, check for side play in the shaft. If either has a problem the timing will not stay set or function properly.

And check the air cleaner. There is a wire mesh element inside the canister. It is commonly clogged with dirt enough to restrict the air flow.

With everything in good operating condition, then the carb and jetting can be addressed. A properly jetted and adjusted carb should be able to take sudden throttle from slow idle without hesitating or balking. If it hesitates, it's too lean. Continued black smoke, sooty exhaust, black plugs, it's too rich.

showcrop · Apr 30, 2022

It is perfectly normal for an updraft carburetor to run some gas out of the intake when you crank it for 4-8 seconds with the choke closed and it doesn't start. A lot of gas got sucked in and gravity is going to bring it back down when you stop cranking.

used red MN · Apr 30, 2022

Larry, while I agree to your sentiment up to a point that is not necessarily the best approach to diagnosis of a bad running engine. On the other hand with apologies to the OP, dinking with the float level adjustment is not necessarily the first trick you should pull out of your hat when you suspect a fuel mixture or fuel delivery problem. To me the most difficult part of this ..long distance.. style of troubleshooting is not being able to hear what the machine sounds like. I feel I could increase my diagnosis accuracy by 50 percent if I could utilize that sense.

fixerupper · Apr 30, 2022

Lots of good advice given so I can't add much. Here's another angle with more questions; So the engine purrs like a kitten but just slows down when it is pulling the mower and propelling the tractor at the same time? Or does it start running rough and popping through the carb like it is running lean? Is it smoking? If it is choking because of a blocked air intake it will be smoking. You said you can stall it with the choke, did it chug and smoke and then die or did it just falter and run slower till it died with no smoke? If it smoked and chugged you are probably getting enough fuel. You mentioned a coil so it must have the distributor conversion instead of a mag. A bad condenser can give you fits. As a lot of the guys on this site have mentioned in previous diagnostic posts for other tractors a brand new condenser out of the box can be bad. A partly shorted condenser will weaken the spark and make it run bad. Most times the tractor will run fine cold but start crapping out after the condenser warms up. This is just a random thought.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

No chugging. It just slowed the RPMs on the engine and the
mower down when both the PTO and first gear were
engaged. I followed a lot of the leads tonight that were given
in reply to this post but thunderstorms kept me from getting it
out of the shop. I think Ill start a new thread once I get it fixed
just to recap what I found. And thank you. Dave.

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Thank you. I will add that to my list of things Ive learned here
and not worry so much. Dave

710ltd2002 · Apr 30, 2022

Steve thanks for jumping in. The governor functioned as you said it should. I opened the distributor and it seemed that everything was tight and clean. It frankly looks like its been recently replaced as well. I checked that screen in the bottom of the air cleaner. Looked nice and clean. Ill get the tractor out of the shop tomorrow and see if everything I did tonight made a difference. Dave.

Centerplate · May 1, 2022

(quoted from post at 12:31:22 04/30/22)
<img src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto124396.jpg>
This is a Woods L59 on a Farmall A. In neutral, the blades
come up to cutting speed. In gear, the blades only come up
to half speed and the engine drags down 30-50%. I found
some Old posts that talked about the engine running too rich.
I adjusted the float in the carb but it hasnt helped. Thoughts?

If you have not done it; adjust the valves and check the timing.

caterpillar guy · May 1, 2022

Another thing is don't make several changes at a time. do one and try it. Otherwise you might not know if or what made a difference and maybe you lose what you had not knowing what changed after making several changes. Cleaning air cleaner and oil would be one than try no difference then check spark and timing. Try and so on till you solve your problem. changing points then checking fuel flow and then and then and then will just make it confusing and get you lost in the changes.

Leroy · May 1, 2022

Am I correct in reading that this only happens when both the PTO and transmission are enguaged? Or does it only do it when PTO or ground speed is enguaged? Does it do it when driving tractor with mower turned Off? Running mower with the tractor in netural? If what I am getting I would look for something bad and draging in the tractor clutch and not with the engine.

BhB · May 1, 2022

I have Super A and use it to cut grass in second gear with a 306 mower. There is no problem, it can be done. I don't have any idea what is wrong, let us know when you get it running

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