Super A running

Hi all,

I don't post much over here as I am over on the Ford board most of the time. My dad has lots of tractors in various states of disrepair. Among them are a pair of Farmall A's and another pair of Farmal Super A's. The two A's are in fair condition and both will run. One of the Super A's is a locked up parts tractor (very rough) and the other one was used until just a few years ago by the previous owner to work his large garden. My dad bought both Super A's from him a couple of years ago and we hadn't done anything with them until the other day. My dad has been wanting to try to start the better Super A for a while and we finally got to it Monday. We brought over a good battery, cleaned up the points, and added some gas. The previous owner had fried the ignition wire and coil so we replaced those. It turned over real good (12 volt battery) but it would not fire at all. We could see that we were getting gas to the carb bowl and fire at the points but not at the plugs. When checking things out I realized I had not looked up into the distributor cap. When I looked I saw what the problem was. All the contacts were corroded and there was other trash up in there. I cleaned it up as good as I could and reinstalled it. It didn't turn over two times before it tried to fire and by the third round it was running! Now, it was running very rough but it was running. My dad ordered parts yesterday for a tune up including plug wires and a rebuild kit for the carb. Hopefully we will be able to get it running a little better. While it was running we tried the hydrolics. Believe it or not the little cobbled 3 point lift worked and the center lift worked. The right rear tire won't hold air so we will have to do something with that. Otherwise my dad might have tried to drive it and see if it will go. Now remember, this tractor has not run in at least four or five years and the last paint job on it is peeling off in big flakes so as far as looks go, (as my dad would say), it is rough as a cob! But I guess looks aren't everything. It was really good to hear it run and I look forward to getting it at least runable again.

It is always a great sound as the exhaust spits out rust flakes and that engine sputters to life!! JimN

All the old tractors are pretty reliable, but we always like to hear about Farmalls!

Since you're a Ford man, you may not know why there are more John Deeres in collections than Farmalls.

It's because the Farmalls are still working.

(quoted from post at 10:24:20 04/29/09) All the old tractors are pretty reliable, but we always like to hear about Farmalls!

Since you're a Ford man, you may not know why there are more John Deeres in collections than Farmalls.

It's because the Farmalls are still working.

Click to expand...

Andy,

That's what I always tell people at tractor shows when I ask them why they never see Ford tractors in shows but always see green, red and orange tractors! The Fords are still in the fields working. I guess great minds think alike. :wink:

Larry:
If it keeps running rough you may have to put a Falcon engine in it. HAW-HAW! Seriously, glad to have you here on the farmall forum.
Your Friend,
mike (Durhan)

(quoted from post at 16:48:54 04/29/09) Larry:
If it keeps running rough you may have to put a Falcon engine in it. HAW-HAW! Seriously, glad to have you here on the farmall forum.
Your Friend,
mike (Durhan)

Click to expand...

Mike,

It's great to find you here! I did wonder if you frequented any of the Farmall Forums.

Hi all,

Here is a picture of the sad little Super A that we got running Monday.



As you can see it is rough as a cob! Hopefully soon it will be a good running tractor.

Here are my dad's other Farmall tractors:









And his IH 404 Rowcrop:

Hi all,

Well my dad got the tune up parts and carb kit in this week but it turns out the points, rotor button, and distributor cap are wrong for this tractor (even though the packages say for International.) Anyway, we got a wheel and tire from the parts Super A and replaced the bad rim and tire that did not hold air. Of couse, the good rim and tire came from the left side of the parts tractor and went on the right side of the tractor we are getting running so the tread is backwards for now. At least it is moble. Well, we removed the points and cleaned up the contacts real good. I cleaned the contacts better inside the distributor cap and on the rotor button. We also put new plug wires on it. (At least those were the right ones.) While we were changing the rear tire we opened the drain plug for the rear end/transmission and of course it was full of water. After it had drained for a while and we got all the sludge out of the bottom we could reach we put the plug back in and added new 90 weight to it. We topped up the hydraulic fluid, too. Then we fired it up again and it ran much better than the last time. We may not even have to rebuild the carb. It was running on all four cylinders and was not really missing at all. Now for the moment of truth. My dad got on it, put it in gear, and away he went! Both the lifts work great! All the forward gears and reverse seem to be fine. It doesn't really smoke and sounds Ok. It looks like we've got us a tractor! We still need to grease it up and the radiator leaks a bit but all in all not too bad. :thThumbsU Here's some pictures I took of it today after my dad drove it around and parked it under the lean-to:









It's starting to come along.