Water, Water Everywhere

You can probably demonstrate this to yourself by making a calibrated spark tester. Get a known good plug and bend the electrode out to 3/16 inch. Clamp it to a good ground and remove ONE spark line from a plug, connecting it to your test plug.

You should see a nice, bright blue spark on all four lines (only test one at a time, so you don't mess up the firing order, as per above).

All four have a nice, fat, blue spark? Water in the ignition system may not have caused your problem; move on to the next thing.

That would probably be to pull the plug on the bottom of the carb and see if water runs out. Also check the sediment bowl and tank. Remeber, water is heavier than gas and always goes to the bottom of tank, carb, or sediment bowl.

By they way, firing order 1-2-4-3, just in case you goofed (I've done it).

One other thing; you say you were loosing lots of oil. If you ever at any point lost so much oil the pressure dropped, or especially if the motor overheated, all bets are off...

I was loosing oil when the tractor was parked and I was very careful when operating it (refilled and used the tractor sparingly)...I do not think a low oil situation caused this problem...but ya never know.

We drained the carb - just in case - the gas smelt good. The tractor started right up afterward - with the continue problem. We did not fool with the sediment bowl or gas tak, but then again, I was very careful with the amount of water that I used. That is what has me so puzzled, I did not indiscriminately hose down the machine w/o thinking of the consequences - in fact I covered the distribor the best I could.

The only quick check did not do was the spark plugs and as careful as I was, I am sure they got a little wet.