Dell is right, more often than not; this may well be a spark problem; but I ALSO note: "been a little afraid to mes with sediment bowl considerin since ive owned the tractor it's had sum sorta gum or putty around the threads goin into the tank that the previous owner musta fixed a leak with" Get a gasket; you'll need one. Now, pull the sediment bowl. Pour out the contents carefully (and remember, if you like fishing, please dispose of old gasoline responsibly), and catch the sediment in the bottom of the bowl. See any fine particles of rust? Then the tank will have to be replaced or cleaned and perhaps sealed before it will run reliably. No rust but other gunk? You still need to have the tank cleaned out. But I will say the suging when low sounds to me very like relatively large flakes of rust in the tank, which tend to shift and swirl slowly over the outlet of a tank as the fuel runs out. Finally, note that fixing a rusty tank doesn't do anything about the rust that's been going through the system all these years; you may still need to clean the screens, etc. There's no absolutely avoiding this problem; but keeping the tractor indoors when not in use helps considerably.
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