Porter Cable tractor

One of my favorite tools on Dudley Acres is this early 60's vintage Porter-Cable garden tractor. This spring when we tried to start her up she wouldn't start. We adjusted the carburetor to be sure fuel was getting into the intake, and sniffed the exhaust to be sure fuel was going through the cylinder. It became clear the the cylinder was not firing. So, we unscrewed the spark plug and placed it on the engine surface (so that the outer edge would go to ground) to see if it would spark, indeed, there was no spark. After changing the spark plug, there was still no spark. Next we removed the engine cover and flywheel and a cover plate to reveal the point. In old engines, the point is like a switch that contacts at exactly the right time in the engine cycle to transfer electricity from a power source to the spark plug. We cleaned the point contacts in the gap and found the point in good working order. Next we turned to the power source. In pull cord engines with no battery, this power comes from something called a coil. The coil is just a coil of copper wire, protected from the elements by a sealed container. The coil sits in a metal armature which not only holds the coil, but transfers electricity into the coil. The armature gets its charge from the rotation of the fly wheel, which contains two magnets. When you pull the cord on the pull start engine, the two magnets in the fly wheel run past the metal armature, and allow it to build a charge from the electric field which it stores in the coil. At just the right time in the engines rotation, the points contact and transfer that built up charge to the spark plug, which fires the engine. As the points were in good condition, and all the wires were conducting, we decided the coil was to blame for the engine's inability to fire.
I then went on line and found, in .pdf format, the old parts manual for my tractor based on model number on the Briggs and Stratton engine. This document showed the engine with all it's parts, each part was given a number which coincided with a part number. With this new found information, we called Koopman Lumber, our local hardware store. While they could not search for parts based on the engine model number, they could search the correct part number. Soon, a brand new coil for the Porter Cable tractor was purchased and installed. The old removed coil is shown to the right next to the box that the brand new one came in. I am proud to say that after installing this part (being sure the spacing between the armature and flywheel was correct), the Porter Cable ran once again!
Old advertisements for this tractor states, "Suburban tractor makes lawn and garden work a picnic". And it really does. Shown is a picture of an old ad for my tractor. (thanks to username "Rusty Old Junk" on the website mytractorforum.com). Just after fixing it, I used this tractor to haul over 400 pounds of dirt from a drainage ditch in the yard up a steep incline, through fields and woods, to dump it on a flooded pathway in our woods. This tractor has only a 6 horsepower engine, and yet it was able to haul what I could not. Thank the Lord for simple tractors like this one!
Also, when this tractor came out it was sold with accessories, just as a front mounted snow blowing attachment, a pull behind triple gang mower, a plow, and assorted other things. If anyone finds such an implement that looks old and like it would fit on a small garden tractor, shoot me an email. I would love to find the snowblower and the triple gang mower for this.