Farmall A Upkeep

First: It came from Arkansas (land of me pappy) and a friend of the owner from whom I bought it brought it out here to central Texas. I rebuilt the carburator recently and got the beast up and running, but she doesn't hold steady or always seem to want the choke in the same position to keep running.

I have the International Harvester Manual (I think it's IT-8) for the A,SuperA, etc... and it only talks about special IH built carbs and I have a Marvel-Schebler. I got a rebuild kit from a place called the Carburetor Refactory in Rich, CA and the parts diagram with that helped a bit, especially when relating it to the IH manual one sentence blurb about throttle and idle speed adjustments.

SO, with the many years I have had playing with hi-tech electronics and electro-mechanics, these machines appear to be too simple for me to fix (I'm probably really just not that experienced with tractors-- you think?)

That's problem numero uno. Nummer zwei, is my PTO shaft will not hold a load. I have removed it from the tractor 3x and checked all that I can see to check with the manual and my eyeballs working together. I called a guy locally who told me there must have been a woodruff (half-moon) key that sheared on the shaft. If this is so, I am sure that I can find and fix that as long as I know I can get the right sized key. So the 2nd point of assistance I would like is if anyone out there knows the proper sized key for that and where I might come across such a thing?

The other screen you refer to is inside the carb fuel intake line? I didn't see any screen of any kind in there, so that's a new one on me. I will check that if I can, though I am hesitant to remove the carburetor again.

Yeah, I figure something's clogging me up, I just can't seem to find what. This whole "gravity" feed fuel system is something else. I did note as I was looking through this discussion board that a LOT of the questions seemed to revolve around carburetor issues or Clutch/Gear/PTO.

Once again, I appreciate your input and I will check out the couple of new items you mentioned for me and see what occurs.

FYI to anyone who reads this thread, I took a lot of photos of my rebuild before and after and I can post them if that is something anyone else would be interested in seeing.

When the carb's choke is at rest, hypothetically, with no cable attached and just the spring to hold it in position, is the choke closed or open? You see, this may have a large portion of an answer as to why the engine runs so funny. If I am adjusting the throttle and idle with the choke positions reversed from what I think they are, then that might be it.

As to photos of the carb, I will post them in a later message and I will title it MS-TSX-175 PICS.

Thanks again, this place might make me happy enough with my tractor to start restoring it as well as making it run for working the land.

Okay, the carb choke position is no biggie, I'll figger it out next time I look at it. The thing about the screen on the fuel inlet to the carb is another story. I checked my pictures (I took them before and during the rebuild to aid me in this sort of thing) and there was no inlet screen of any kind. The only screen for the fuel that I have is in the sediment bowl.

Is it possible that some of my apparent carb problems could be an air filter or a bad coil? I saw some mention of those earlier and just recently also, so just wondering.

I was only asking about the electrical as it sounded kind of similar to the outcome I was having.

Played with it yesterday and now I can get it to idle fine, but can't get it up to higher rpms when I throttle up. Instead it dies. I'll keep plugging away at it. Meanwhile, I ordered my books and am awaiting them so I can actually start looking like I know what I'm doing.

Thanks again!