Mighty's Sears Suburban "Thor"

Well.... my new muffler is telling a tale as I hadn't put heat paint on it yet.



Hmm..... appears to be running on mostly 1 cylinder.  I see a little heat on the front, but nothing like the back.

Checked spark and it appears pretty weak. on the front.  Weak but better on the back.  Didn't realize the power reduction.  I'll do the easy thing and get a new coil.

Don't order the $12 china ones. My brother did that and it had the weakest spark I've seen on an oppy to date.

Nah, no need to order one.  I did the right thing and polished up the grounds for the coil and polished up the magnet first.  Nice bright blue spark now on both plugs.  Both sides of the muffler quickly got hot at the same rate now.  Idles a bit smoother now too.

Well, the issue came back and with a vengeance.  I guess I will need to tear into the engine.  

what issue came back?

It appeared to be running again on one cylinder, but this time getting really hot and backfiring a little bit. I tore into it today. Pulled plugs, showed signs of super lean condition. I pulled the carb and proceeded to clean it out. It was really dirty. Put it back in and it was not spraying any gas in the carb. Checked it again and just could not figure it out. I know the area behind the main jet did not look good. Also, I could not find a wire small enough to clear one passage. I grabbed a carb my father-in-law gave me that went to the original engine for Kal. I tore it open to find it was a new carb?!!! Fuel pump on it had hardened, so I put the bad carb’s fuel pump on it. I knew it was ok. Put on the other carb and it fired right up!! It idled so smooth! I proceeded to do some testing. I was able to run the mower at half throttle full speed drive with ease. Never bogged down. Didn’t realize I was missing so many horses.

OK...  @Rustbucket Garage indirectly put some thoughts in my head in another thread.  I haven't been 100% happy with Thor. The hydro is breaking down and creeping now.  I have a couple peerless 2300's that I think I could easily retrofit into Thor.  Imagine that... a Sears Suburban with a Peerless 2300?  The more I think about it, the more I think this may be my new springtime project.