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Achto

401 Suburban Resto

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squonk
6 hours ago, kpinnc said:

 

I'm a bit too big to comfortably drive a Surburban, which is why I sold my RJ and my 551. 

 

Your restoration makes me question my decision. It looks awesome! :thumbs:

I look like a circus bear on my 551 :lol:

 

20250620_163621.jpg.22db0c1c42a4c7d97f9578bef5b855a1.jpg.f910c6a870d25e60cda8f511168323d5.jpg

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squonk

I'm thinking the Mag coil itself. Or is there a spark advance system on these little Kohl-aires? 

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SylvanLakeWH
8 hours ago, WHX?? said:

He claims he played with everything ... including himself :lol: ... to get it to run right.

 

8 hours ago, WHX?? said:

how could you have stripped that girl from her working cloths?

Oh that's right you like seeing girls naked ...


That paint is pretty reflective... Careful what the camera catches... Again with the visuals...!!! :scared-eek:
 

Beautiful work Dan!!! :hide:

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Achto
1 hour ago, squonk said:

I'm thinking the Mag coil itself. Or is there a spark advance system on these little Kohl-aires? 

 

I do have a brand new aftermarket mag I could try. Would prefer it to be a Kohler one but it's what I have on hand. No spark advance on this little one.

 

Symtems

1 - starts hard

2 - can not have the throttle above idle or it absolutely will not start 

3 - have to bump the throttle with your finger to coaxe it up to speed, once there it will hold with the throttle.

4 - pull the throttle once warmed up a bit and it will shut down immediately.

5 - seems to want to fall off after running at speed for a while.

6 - if the governor pulls the throttle wide open it wants to kill.

7 - have had to clean the points several time doe to a loss of spark. 

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wallfish
5 minutes ago, Achto said:

 

I do have a brand new aftermarket mag I could try. Would prefer it to be a Kohler one but it's what I have on hand. No spark advance on this little one.

 

Symtems

1 - starts hard

2 - can not have the throttle above idle or it absolutely will not start 

3 - have to bump the throttle with your finger to coaxe it up to speed, once there it will hold with the throttle.

4 - pull the throttle once warmed up a bit and it will shut down immediately.

5 - seems to want to fall off after running at speed for a while.

6 - if the governor pulls the throttle wide open it wants to kill.

7 - have had to clean the points several time doe to a loss of spark. 

 

Did you ever change the condenser as mentioned earlier? You can quick check that just by adding a known good one directly to the points wire on the points connection without pulling the flywheel. 

I've had a couple where the points setting was so touchie it took forever to adjust that gap. Drop the gap to 17 and see if it changes anything. Then adjust in tiny .001 increments  

you can try closing the plug gap a little. Weak spark would jump it easier.

A bad plug wire would also cause those symptoms

:twocents-02cents:

 

New Kohler coil

https://davespartsworld.com/products/k90-91-kohler-ignition-coil-220435

 

 

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squonk
Just now, wallfish said:

 

 

you can try closing the plug gap a little. Weak spark would jump it easier.

A bad plug wire would also cause those symptoms

:twocents-02cents:

 

 

 

 

That kinda why I was leaning to the coil. ( bad plug wire)

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wallfish
5 minutes ago, squonk said:

That kinda why I was leaning to the coil. ( bad plug wire)

Plug wires on those K91 coils can be changed without changing the coil

Edited by wallfish
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wallfish

A temp battery ignition coil and condenser can be set up fairly easy without pulling the flywheel. 

If it runs well doing that then it would verify the problem is definitely in the original ignition system somewhere other than the points. Then verify each component one at a time.  

Check that points push rod too

Connecting a long deck belt to another tractor PTO is easier than yanking that thing all day

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953 nut
16 minutes ago, wallfish said:

Did you ever change the condenser as mentioned earlier?                    :text-yeahthat:

You can quick check that just by adding a known good one directly to the points wire on the points connection without pulling the flywheel.        :confusion-confused:    

 

The most conclusive way to check for a bad condenser is to disconnect it. A short period of operation without a condenser won't hurt the points. I have never attached a second condenser in parallel with a suspected bad one,       :text-google:         where did you come up with that one John?  I'm always eager to learn a new trick or two.

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wallfish
1 minute ago, 953 nut said:

where did you come up with that one John? 

That's directly from the back yard hammer mechanic's school of hard knocks. It's under the chapter called trial and error! LOL

It won't hurt anything to add another condenser for testing purposes. It's definitely a pain to keep disassembling to pull the flywheel so when you give the laziest man the toughest job, he'll find the easiest way to do it. 

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WHX??
7 minutes ago, wallfish said:

temp battery ignition coil and condenser can be set up fairly easy

That is a good idea ... Guess I gotta start with the old fashions to come up with that... :lol:

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953 nut
6 minutes ago, wallfish said:

That's directly from the back yard hammer mechanic's school of hard knocks. It's under the chapter called trial and error! LOL

It won't hurt anything to add another condenser for testing purposes. It's definitely a pain to keep disassembling to pull the flywheel so when you give the laziest man the toughest job, he'll find the easiest way to do it. 

When I had a K-90 the condenser was mounted on the engine block near the points, one pervious owner modification that went well.

Most condenser failures are a short due to moisture in the dielectric material, anything placed in parallel with a short is going to be seen as a short.

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wallfish
3 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

When I had a K-90 the condenser was mounted on the engine block near the points, one pervious owner modification that went well.

Most condenser failures are a short due to moisture in the dielectric material, anything placed in parallel with a short is going to be seen as a short.

Well, then that would verify that. Bad connection, open circuit, bad ground on it, pulled out wire, etc can all be very quickly verified by adding a condenser to the points. Who knows what those little chinese kids missed when making them

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wallfish
3 hours ago, squonk said:

I look like a circus bear on my 551 :lol:

 

20250620_163621.jpg.22db0c1c42a4c7d97f9578bef5b855a1.jpg.f910c6a870d25e60cda8f511168323d5.jpg

 

You ? That 401 looks like a dingleberry on James! :ROTF:

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