Quote: ''If you pull it over a cylinder at a time, it won't start. If you start spinning it over it will catch after a bit.''Yeah. Catch your arm or your head, maybe. dlp, the SAFEST way to crank a tractor is to pull upwards, sharply, with the thumb NOT wraped around the handle. Spinning a tractor engine with the crank is NOT recommended. Until you fix your problem, pull this tractor if you must start it and you just might avoid a painful accident. True ''kickback'' (where the charge is ignited BEFORE top dead center while cranking, causing the engine to run backwards, thus locking the pawl and turning the crank into a lethal death machine) is less common in Farmalls than in Model T Fords, but it still happens. When it does, it can kill. To address your post directly: test the ignition system by making one of Dell's patented ''calibrated'' spark testers. Get a known good plug and bend the electrode out to 3/16.'' Ground it well and connect one of the spark wires to it. It should show a nice, fat blue spark. If the spark is narrow or off-color, that could account for your difficult starting. If so you can experiment with the choke. You shouldn't need the choke at all in warm weather, but sometimes choking a recalcitrant tractor with a weak ignition can make it easier to start. It also makes it very easy to flood the carb, so be cautious... You can also try the following, if you're not doing it already: BEFORE turning the ignition, pull on the crank six or eight times. THEN throw the ignition. This was the Farmall-recommended procedure. You sound very certain your timing is correct and your impulse is working properly, but I have read on these boards several times of the exact symptoms you describe being caused by a sticking impulse. Giving the crank some warm-up pulls can help alleviate this symptom.
| 
