1976 JD300 Electric Start

[TASKY]

You must have a time machine. I would love to be able to just walk right up to counter order the parts I am looking for and buy them right then and there. Good Luck Bill

[Matt]

Haha.. why's that?
I'm completely guessing at this point, but I would probably get a new stator plate with the condensers and coils, seals for the flywheel side, and a new ignition coil to replace the one I stupidly pulled the boot off of. I'll take a look at New Breed. I should probably get it apart first to diagnose first though. Hopefully just needs a cleaning.

Yea...unfortunately they will probably laugh at you when you ask for those parts, as the sleds haven't been supported since 1984-1985. I don't have all the electrical parts on New Breed yet that are available because application data is all over the place, but I'll take a look and see what's available for the Kohler.

[JDT]

Disassembly, cleaning and inspection should be your first step I aggree.

The boot on the coil should not be an issue. You can glue it back on.

Crank seals are easy to find at any auto parts store. You ask for them by size, not application.

Aftemarket coils, points and condensor should be available.

If you did need a new stator plate Ebay may warrant a look.

[jeffsled]

It's alive!!... well, sort of. I've got really good spark now. All I had to do was sand the points.
Now it still won't fire up, but I have a feeling it's a fuel thing. I emptied the whole tank to get rid of the old gas a few weeks ago and put new stuff in with a 50:1 ratio. Do I need to prime the fuel lines or anything? I pulled the hoses off the bottom of the carb and they're dry. I've heard this thing fire up for a few seconds before (could have been the staring fluid though). Thanks again.

[JDT]

Several things should be looked at for fuel delivery problems.
Not in any peticular order. Even if the first one you check is the red herring, check all of them.

There is a checkvalve and filter on the end on the line inside the tank. The filter may be plugged with slime. The line itself may be broke, cracked or rotted. Very cheap and easy to replace so spend $ 5.00 and you know it will last.

The external fuel lines may be junk, pinched, have pin hole or cracks. Again replace both the supply and return lines from the tank and carb. And also the short impulse line from the side of the carb to the engine crank case. This is a critical component and often overlooked.

Then there is the carb itself. If it has sat with bad fuel in it, has not been run in a year or just for piece of mind, removed it and do a complete tear down and clean it.

And finally you should replace both crank seals. A bad seal can cause the fuel pump to not work. Even if the fuel pump is working a bad seal will destroy your engine in just a few minutes of running.

[jeffsled]

So my red herring ended up being the fuel pickup line coming off and falling into the tank. All the other lines look very new.

It actually runs now!!.. but only for about 10-20 seconds at a time. I can kind of coax it by playing with the choke while it's running, but eventually it alway dies out. Is this just a carburetor adjustment?

Thanks for the patience, it seems like each post I get one step closer to this thing running like a champ.

[jeffsled]

Alright, I think it's finally running pretty good. I downloaded the carb manual and tinkered (pretty much at random) with some of the settings, and seems to be running pretty well. boggs down a tad every now and then when you give it full throttle, but I'm not too worried about that at this point, probably just some more minor adjustments on the carburetor.

Thanks again guys for all the help! I have a feeling I'll be frequenting the site a lot more as my next project is two early 70's JD500's that have been sitting on a trailer under a cover in a barn for who knows how long.

I'll try to post a picture once I get all the plastics back on.

[JDT]

Don't forget about the crank seals.......