With my old tractors - a sudden stop and no start means an ignition issue.
A sputtering, loss of power and stop and brief or no start of the motor usually is fuel delivery.
Check for fuel to the carb? Does the carb drain freely?
Check ignition switch - wires tight? clean? Bartomos (above) offers good advice for ignition check.
Compression should be a non-issue
Your experience - for me, typically gets my pulse and blood pressure up when that happens - frustrating.
Last edited by tom moore; 05/14/2015 7:49 PM.
