Problem solved. I used an auxiliary fuel tank and hooked directly to the carb and then to the inlet of the filter before the fuel pump. The engine ran great. That only left the fuel tank and line. I cut the tie wraps that held the gas line to the frame and emptied the tank at full flow, checking for dirt and then flushed the tank. No contamination in the tank. I took a look at the gas line where it was tied to the frame and the tie wraps had slightly pinched the hose at two points. Along with the fact that the gas hose was 5 years old and less rigid, the tie wraps were enough to cut the fuel flow to the motor. Installed new gas line and ran the engine for one hour without stalling.

I removed the bowl and the float moves freely so I assume it is resting in the slot. There is fuel in the bowl, becuase when I remove the shut off solinoid fuel comes out. Yes, it will only idle, not speed up or slow down. I drained the fuel and replaced with fresh and also once again moved the throttle lever on the "dash board" and looked at the levers. Moving the lever from slow to choke resulted in the the choke plate closing, but when I moved the throttle lever on the dash board from choke to fast, there was not a cooresponding movement in the linkage to move the throttle plate in carb. All springs and links are in place, but it seems to be hanging up on the carb. I will remove the carb and try to adjust where the linkage is attached to the carb. Thanks for your help. Chuck G.

You're welcome. I was as perplexed as you with the "lack of" detail regarding how and when the fuel solenoid became energized. There is only one other circumstance I can liken YOUR situation to (engine acts like it wants to run when cranking, but dies when key is released from START position). Back in the '40s, '50s, and early '60s,, some automotive engine OEMs employed a "ballast resistor" in the ignition coil circuit. This "ballast resistor" was placed in the ignition coil circuit so that the normal system voltage, was cut by 50% before reaching the ignition coil. This meant that on a vehicle with a 12 volt electrical system, only 6 volts was fed to the ignition coil from the RUN position of the ignition switch. 6 volt systems cut the power to 3 volts. The most compelling reason for having to "rig up" the coil feed this way was due to the woefully inadequate batteries, switches, wiring and other things electrical, of that time. Mainly, it was the "weak" automotive batteries of the time that had to be "compensated for". Here's why: All applications that utilize a battery to power a cranking motor, will experience a dramatic "system voltage drop" throughout the entire electrical system during cranking. The "drop" is caused by the very heavy "current draw", or LOAD, of the starter. The voltage drop causes the ignition coil "sparkability" to diminish significantly. Add to that, a good frosty morning where the battery is cold and even weaker. Factor in further that the starter itself has worn brushes and sticky bushings and you will have so much current draw.....you might not even get a spark out of the coil. Enter the wizards of yesteryear (uhh, maybe they were just engineers). They developed a method to assure good sparks from the coil during cranking. The idea was to use a 6 volt rated ignition coil on a 12 volt system instead of the usual 12 volt rated coil (3 volt coil for 6 volt systems). But how can you do that? Wouldn't a 6 volt coil "burn up" if you powered it with 12 volts? Yes, it would........but not if you feed the normal RUN position power through a "ballast resistor" to reduce 12V to 6V before it reaches the coil. HUH? The "key" to how this arrangement assured dependable starting was in adding a SEPARATE circuit that would "BYPASS" the resistor while the starter was engaged. Bypassing the resistor meant that the ignition coil would be fed a "higher voltage" (in spite of system voltage drop) when cranking, than in normal running mode. After the engine "caught on", the starter was disengaged and the bypass circuit disabled. The current feeding the coil once again flowed through the ballast resistor and the 6 volt rated coil was safe from burning up. It was somewhat common in those days to confront a vehicle that acted similar to this Scag. (It wants to start while cranking, but dies when let go of key.) Most of the time, that particular problem would be due to a failed ballast resistor. But those systems had some other shortcomings. Sometimes you would find a vehicle where the owner would complain of "it just cranks and cranks and cranks, but if you turn the key loose, it might start up at that moment. THIS condition was due to the BYPASS circuit being open for some reason. OEMs accomplished "BYPASS" in different ways. Some added an extra post to the ignition switch that would power the bypass circuit during cranking. Other OEMs added an extra wire to the starter solenoid that powered the bypass circuit during cranking. When something became open in the bypass circuit, the coil would only be fed the reduced voltage. Then you were right back to the situation before the ballast resistor systems came into use. Advances in battery, ignition, starters, and conductors in general, made the use of ballast resistor systems disappear in the 1970s (except for some industrial applications). Oh yeah, magneto ignition systems were unaffected by voltage drop in the vehicle electrical system because they are "self contained spark generators".

YOU VACUUMED THE DEBRIS OUT OF A GAS TANK! With what? I don't guess you ever heard of a vacuum cleaner turning into an air/fuel bomb from someone doing that? The vacuum cleaner motor shares some of the exhaust air that has passed through the vacuum collection canister. If the volatiles are concentrated enough and the sparks (which are always there) from the motor commutator and brushes ignite this air/fuel mixture there will be 2 explosions (at least 2). The first explosion happens in the motor compartment where the sparks are. Almost instantaneously, that small explosion will propagate back into the collection canister igniting a larger, more violent explosion. Further explosions and/or fire depend entirely on how much other flammable liquids are in close proximity to the vacuum cleaner. That's why your vacuum cleaner has a warning about not picking up flammable liquids. Most fire departments can tell a few tales of calls they have answered due to exploding vacuum cleaners caused by this. You wouldn't be the first, but it could be YOUR last.