This loader has a Continental F226 flathead 6 cylinder engine, pretty much what came in millions of fork lifts since the 40's. It has a Pertronix HEI, electric fuel pump, new spark plugs. We rely on the loader to move firewood, feed horses, and do other farm chores. I'm from the OBD2 era so I didn't learn on tractors and such...
Essentially the loader ran incredible when we put the HEI, the fuel pump and etc on it 10 years ago. Now, it will rev out to the governor, but you have to feather the throttle. If you swat the throttle off idle, it will kill the engine. If you try to go uphill, it bogs down. If its bad enough (seems to vary with the weather), it won't even have enough power to move the machine at all on flat ground. you have to rev it out and dump it in gear to get it to move in spurts.
Dad and I both have tried to fix this for 2 years now and its on and off and has been getting to the point where it's doing this every time we use it.
Dad put on a new distributor cap, changed the oil and messed with it for several hours the other day.
Today I bought and installed a new NAPA coil, after beating a grounding problem to death on the old coil. No improvement. Drained the carb bowl, removed the needles and cleaned the passages with carb clean, no improvement. I tore down the distributor and cleaned the rotor (that helped, but the machine was also at operating temp). I noticed the advance on the distributor was rough, so i cleaned up some slight wear grooves, removed the rust and dielectric greased it. Advance is smooth as silk now. No improvement. Checked all the intake manifold bolts to assure good vacuum- we recently replaced the gasket, no obvious issues.
I googled the daylights out of the Pertronix issue. The HEI either works or it doesn't, according to Pertronix and people who DID have problems (none of which seem to match mine) seem to have a grounding issue, either on the ignitor to the plate in the distributor (seems okay to me) or the distributor to the machine. I'm assuming the - terminal on the coil (where the black wire on the ignitor goes) is grounded? Or we will have to clean the distributor's contact to the block near the timing clamp. Will run resistance checks from the distributor to the battery ground to see if there is resistance.
Dad has a timing light, we are going to check for an ignition timing problem.
Carb is suspect, was dirty and adjustment and external tinkering doesn't seem to help.
Just stumped....
Essentially the loader ran incredible when we put the HEI, the fuel pump and etc on it 10 years ago. Now, it will rev out to the governor, but you have to feather the throttle. If you swat the throttle off idle, it will kill the engine. If you try to go uphill, it bogs down. If its bad enough (seems to vary with the weather), it won't even have enough power to move the machine at all on flat ground. you have to rev it out and dump it in gear to get it to move in spurts.
Dad and I both have tried to fix this for 2 years now and its on and off and has been getting to the point where it's doing this every time we use it.
Dad put on a new distributor cap, changed the oil and messed with it for several hours the other day.
Today I bought and installed a new NAPA coil, after beating a grounding problem to death on the old coil. No improvement. Drained the carb bowl, removed the needles and cleaned the passages with carb clean, no improvement. I tore down the distributor and cleaned the rotor (that helped, but the machine was also at operating temp). I noticed the advance on the distributor was rough, so i cleaned up some slight wear grooves, removed the rust and dielectric greased it. Advance is smooth as silk now. No improvement. Checked all the intake manifold bolts to assure good vacuum- we recently replaced the gasket, no obvious issues.
I googled the daylights out of the Pertronix issue. The HEI either works or it doesn't, according to Pertronix and people who DID have problems (none of which seem to match mine) seem to have a grounding issue, either on the ignitor to the plate in the distributor (seems okay to me) or the distributor to the machine. I'm assuming the - terminal on the coil (where the black wire on the ignitor goes) is grounded? Or we will have to clean the distributor's contact to the block near the timing clamp. Will run resistance checks from the distributor to the battery ground to see if there is resistance.
Dad has a timing light, we are going to check for an ignition timing problem.
Carb is suspect, was dirty and adjustment and external tinkering doesn't seem to help.
Just stumped....
