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(1) Check the fuel flow. Pull the plug from the bottom of the carb. You should see a constant stream, about the diameter of the fuel line. A trickle or intermittent stream means you've found your problem. If the fuel flow checks out ok, do yourself a favor and run the following quick checks BEFORE dismantling the carb: (2) Make a calibrated tester. Take a good plug and bend the electrode out to 3/16'' or so. Clamp it to ground and connect ONE of the spark lines to it (only remove one at a time, don't mix them up!). You should see a nice, bright blue spark. Weak or discolored spark? Fix it (don't forget the ignition switch!) and try again before taking apart the carb. (3) Check the governor. Start the motor and pull on the butterfly valve rod. It should ''fight'' you. If you don't feel any resistance, it might be your governor. (4) Evaluate your compression. My favorite way to do this is with a hand crank; my second choice is to crank using the starter with the ignition OFF, listening carefully. There are other methods. Questionable compression on even one cylinder (be honest with yourself!)? Break out the tester and do a scientific test. (5) If the tractor passes all these checks (they only take a few minutes to run), plus any other quick checks you can think of, THEN worry about the carb. The fastest way to determine if you have a carb problem is to substitute in a carb off another tractor that is known to run well. This is where it pays to know your neighbors and parts counter guys. Few people bother do all this; most just start blindly tweaking things and then pulling the carb apart when they don't get the results they want from tweaking. A quick search of this site will tell you all about their misadventures.
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