My john deere 214 sputters and backfires at an idle and dies when throttled up too fast. It sputters the worst at about half throttle and if not accelerated very slowly it will die. Although it does run fine at full throttle. I have bought a new carburetor for it and changed the in line fuel filter. The carb has been looked at and adjusted by a small engines mechanic. I just wonder if the ignition points, coil or condenser would be the problem? The coil does look old and even has a tiny rust hole in it. I just need help diagnosing a problem like this. Could it still be a fuel/carb problem? Or could the points and ignition components have something to do with it? Any feedback and advice is greatly appreciated thanx.
Thats what i kept thinking too, so I took the old carb off and cleaned it and put it back on and it still sputtered and stalled, so then i bought a brand new carb from ebay. I tried adjusting it to the best of my ability but was still having problems, so i took it to a small engines mechanic who looked the carb over and replaced the gaskets from the motor to the carb and from the carb to the air cleaner as he said they where very brittle. However it still sputters.
so im not sure if it is something to do with the new carb or not. (would i have been better off rebuilding the original one then buying a new one?)
or could it be possible that it has something to do with the ignition points, condenser, or coil?
Perhaps try a new plug if for nothing else to take it out of the equation. In my experience with engines backfires are normally caused by an ignition issue of some sort. I would check the plug wire for cuts, cracks, etc to ensure that it isn't grounding out constantly or intermittently. If that checks out then I would check the coil. It could be points/condenser which, regardless of problem and you get it running again, I would replace with an electronic ignition kit.
Well it does have a new plug, and the plug wire checks out ok. I would say my only option left would be to try replacing points, condenser, and coil. (Assuming that there isn't any other possible cause that i don't know about).
how would i go about replacing the points? Not 100% sure how to gap them and all that.
Well I replaced the points and condenser, and set the points to 0.020 like the manual says, and I've got it running a lot better then it was. I got it to throttle up like it should, but it still misses and backfires a little bit(not as bad as before, but still noticeable).
I still have yet to replace the coil because i could not buy it locally and will have to order it. So I'm not sure if replacing the coil would help smooth things out and help cure some of the missing and backfiring or not. Should I have set the points a little differently? Will a new coil help?
whatever the setting is for the points I would do that initially. They can be tweaked though I don't think that'll solve the problem. Coils can break down over time. Normally this is discovered at higher rpms and/or wide open throttle. Especially as they heat up/get hot.
It has died out on me a couple times after getting hot. What I've read from other forums, that can be a sign of a bad coil. It doesn't look to be in the best shape and the connections look pretty dirty and corroded. So i think I'll try replacing it and the plug wire and see what happens. If it still misses and backfires(fingers crossed) then i guess I'll recheck the points, and then I'll be back to the drawing board to try and figure out the next possible cause.
One thing is hard starting when cold, could cause a miss (coil firing every now and then) and when it gets hot engine will just shut down like you turned key off.
With your description I would suspect coil being bad.
Do you have any old car or tractor with 12 volt system that has a coil, if so try it before you buy a new one.
You can use coil from parts store with no problem.
Ok thanks I'm just really hoping that the coil will be the problem. It does sound like it would be the problem to me, i was just unsure if a weak coil would cause it to miss and/or backfire or not. Thanks for the advice.
Not sure about interchangeability of coils. If they fit the seat and hold down screws line up that's a start. But the swipe of the magnet and the pick up might be specific to the shoe form and pulse too early or late??
I've had good luck changing coils with one from parts store on Kohler K series, you can take old one and they can match size to what you have, just need to make sure if it's a 12v system to get 12v coil.
Back in 1980 I had a Ford 125 with K 301 in it, coil went out while I was using rototiller, I had just changed my B model Alice Chalmers tractor to 12 volt so I went and got that coil and put on Kohler and finished the garden
#18
cpurvis
Another suggestion--check the valve lash.
If the intake valve is not seating, at low rpm it can cause the engine to backfire because exhaust gas can get pushed into the intake manifold where a nice, combustible fuel/air mixture resides. Most noticeable at low rpm.
