Simplicity Tractor Shuts Down After A While

[reiterch]

I have an older Simplicity Sovereign 7016 tractor for mowing my lawn.

It has a Briggs and Stratton 16HP engine, with points and a coil.

Lately, it will lose power after being run for about a half an hour. If I cut the throttle and shut the PTO off it will stay running, but if it stalls out, it will not start back up again unless I let it sit for a while.

When this happens, it is not flooded (I checked the plug). As far as I can tell the engine is not over heating. I belive it is something electrical.

The points seem to be ok. Could it be the coil?

It seems to run ok until the problem occurs. It starts ok, though it runs a little rough for the first minute or so until it gets going.

Air filter is clean, oil was just changed, new plug installed. Gas is fresh.

Any ideas or things I can check?

[billp603]

Check that your gas cap vent hole is clear. If it is not allowing air into your tank the gas will not flow out to the carb. Usually this will cause stalling after about 5 to 10 minutes, since you are going okay for 30 it may be something else. But it's just one simple thing to check.

[Smalltimer1]

Visit www.simpletractors.com , they are a very helpful bunch there on Simplicity and Allis Chalmers Garden Tractors. There's a few Simplicity certified techs over there that can give you a heads up on your problems.

[YardPro]

fuel filter

[dfischer58]

Both tips are good, and yes it could easily be a coil. They both overheat and age. I might even change the condensor. While at it, clean all the wire contact points. I’ve seen random ignition failures from poor contacts in odd places.

[Travis Followell]

Sounds like the coil to me. Thats most likely what the problem is but you might as well replace the points and condensor while your at it.