Tank resprayed yesterday and everything put back together today. Lock nut fitted to the top link arm but I had to adjust the 3 arms with a length of pipe to ensure it cleared the PTO housing.
Then start up time and no go. This is most unusual for this tractor as he normally jumps to life as soon as you pull the starter knob. Checked for spark, good, fuel in tank, good, fuel in carby, NO.
So what went wrong? Removed the fuel line at the carby and got fuel flowing there so off with the carby. Found no rust or dirt or mud crabs inside but I did find that the needle was stuck in the seat. Looking closer I noticed the finest little retainer spring holding the needle in place and it was as it was holding the needle shut. So I took it off and the needle would open n close no worries. Checked to see if I could put it back together with out the spring and did a bench test and it did not fall out even after a good shaking so I put it back on. Carby is a Solex-FV updraft.
Engine started but it was hunting up and down the rev range which it use to do a little bit but not like this before. So I tried adjusting the spring tension on the rod that goes from the carby to the governor. Thought I was almost winning and it did improve but then it started backfiring a bit and it was going to die so I pulled the choke on and it sorted of recovered and backfiring a little bit but still wanting to die so I kept pulling the choke and then it seemed to settle a bit. So while it was running badly I parked it back in his shed so I can work on him again there.
I am going to check the adjustment of the governor but I have never done this before and the workshop manuals written in fluent POMMY and once you decipher the terminology I think I understand it. But this does not explain the back firing and it has not done this before.
Any Clues???