Help! My 140 lost power, won't take a load...

She is doing better, still not 100%, but doing better. Both outside plugs were wet, while the center two were dry. A new coil, condenser, points did wonders. It's a little off though, and I'm sure that I set the points too tight. It just seemed right to keep the rider on the cam rather than let the square cam smack into the rider 4 times per revolution. But, I had to turn the distributor clockwise to get it to run, way out from where it used to run.

Now, the miss seems to be gone, and about 50% power is back. Gonna adjust the points and see if that brings her back. I think I'll whack off the muffler anyway, get the valve cover off and take a look under there just to be sure. I have to tighten the leaking valve cover anyway. Been sooooo long since I even saw a set of points, so this has been educational at the least. Thanksall
Dave

Anyway a new coil, plugs, plug wires, and points fixed it. Can't say which one fixed it but probably the coil and then the plugs in that order. I had already changed the condenser with no help but that could be your culprit. Most of my plugs were wet when they came out. I agree with one poster when I asked about it on an earlier thread that once plugs get fouled and saturated from flooding, they just never clean up and dry out. I've cleaned countless lawn mower spark plugs, even used a torch on them, with no help but a new one fired right up.

If you are having fuel starvation problems it will just quit running. Then as the carb refills, it will restart. From what I hear, a weak coil may act about the same.

Let us know what fixes it.

This condensation issue always happens in these winters where temperatures constantly fluctuate above and below freezing. I'm not running my SA or 140 right now, however my 130 has been causing me grief. Twice in the past week the sediment bowl has been half full of water, and once they reach that half way point some of it does go on to the carb. Some will say it should disappear once temperature rises above freezing, I say not quickly, that fan is blowing cold air on the carb.

May be since oil hit $100./ barrel earlier my refinery has increased the volume of water in the gas to make more money.

Heard a story years ago, farmer trying to squeak through some hard times, tried mixing sawdust with his horse feed. He said it worked well at low percentages of sawdust, but once he got to 40% the horse died. I'm thinking I've got .01% water, I guess an offset Farmall, just a bit more sensitive than the horse, however the Farmall will come back to life, if one corrects it's feed.

I tend to chalk it up to condensation, the way the weather's been, and the times it made a problem, the dry gas fixed her right up.

I was asking around a while back to see if anybody else was having the same experience and opened a whole can of worms about the quality of fuel, and the effect of additives. Agreed the dry gas will get you running. But a lot of opinions on ethanol in gas from the pump and whether the ethanol or even the additives (dry gas or StaBil) would draw moisture, as they're made to absorb it. I understand the argument from that side, but also figure that they won't draw any more moisture than they can chemically absorb. Once they're saturated, they don't draw any more. Or so I would think.

Help me to understand how to see "the slow build-up of water in the sediment bowl".

When gas had lead in it and was pink in color, it was simple to see the water line/gas line in the bowl. But now with "white (un-leaded) gas", to me is near impossible to see the water in the bowl.

Do you still have lead in that Canadian gas, or some other type of color to be able to see the water?

Edward