Farmall Super A help

Hi all, I have a major problem and I was wondering if any of you might think of something that I have not. This summer my super A has had junk in the carb. The engine has never given me any problem for years and I take good care of her. I put an inline gas filter, changed the cork in the sediment bowl and was going to take the carb apart and blow out the passages. Unfortunately I did not just do that first. Between bad weather and work (and a new baby) I had to doing cultivating. I ran the choke partway on to keep the engine running. I knew it was not good for it and I would only run it short times. I had the bright idea of trying one of the gas additive carb cleaners. I put it in, fired her up drove across the field and shut her down to arrange the cultivators and went to start her up again and she was locked up. I thought it was the solenoid at first and tinkered with that for awhile. It finally occurred to me to use the hand crank and when I tried I could not budge the crank so I knew the score. As it stands now I put a bit of diesel fuel in each cylinder to see if I can free them up. I will move to marvel mystery oil tomorrow when I can get to the store. I worked on her till sundown tonight.
What I figure happened was it was already running hotter than norm and less oil because of the choke being on and the carb cleaner ran her hotter and she froze soon as I shut her down. What do you guys think? I had hoped it was a hung starter but using a light hammer on the starter did nothing. It was not running long when I shut it down. 5 mins maybe. What are my chances of freeing it up over a week or so? The plan is if I can free her up, tow her back to the barn and do the carb overhaul and drain out the crap carb cleaner. Also what long term damage am I looking at if I can get it un froze? Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated.


Mike

A possibility is that you may have a spun bearing (or about to).

Here's how (and how I arrived at that). My 460U had the same problem more or less with the carb, which I finally resolved and is working good. I had driven it around a little bit here and there just for testing. Had plenty of oil on the stick.

Next task was to change engine oil (9 quarts!!) and the stuff ran out like water and might as well have been black fuel as that's exactly what it smelled like. I was really concerned as to even the short length of time I had run the tractor, after changing oil to fresh 10w40 I had double the oil pressure.

My supposition is that extended running with full choke (how it had to run before) and probably not much runtime in quite awhile, had been in an auction, then sitting roadside, sitting under a tarp at my house, then short excursions while I did some troubleshooting was enough to slowly add a generous percentage of fuel to the crankcase. In my case I can tell the rings are on their last legs which probably does not help matters any.

Now I am not so worried as it runs better with more oil pressure (other than the smoke which will require a rebuild) but I am worried about the condition of the crank and bearings and the possible wear that was imparted by poor lubrication.

I sincerely hope I am wrong and it turns out better than this. A last thought is: are you removing all spark plugs at the time of cranking the engine by hand?

There's lots to eliminate, but I can't imagine that your motor is siezed if it was running normally when you shut it down.

First thing would be to follow your first instinct but ditch the hammer. This ain't a Chevy. Take a wrench and unbolt the starter, rock it back out of the hole (mind the hot wire on top of it!) and reinstall.

I've got an idea that will do it.

We used to have the starter stick on our M sometimes and we would put it in high gear and rock it back and forth with the rear tires.

No i had the pulgs in when i tried the hand crank. I will try moving the starter tomorrow and try the hand crank with a plug out. I checked the oil in the pan and it is the right consistency, no fuel there. The engine was not making any noise when I shut it down and other than having the choke half on was running like a top.

Thinking some more about the choke issue. None of this is related to the binding question.

Having to run with the choke half in means one of two things, the motor is drawing too much air or not enough fuel.

Is that inline filter something recent? If so, I'd get rid of it. The screen in the sediment bowl and the next screen in the inlet elbow on the carb should be sufficient for filtering. Make sure they're both clean.

Where you've had the carb off for work, check the gasket at the top of the carb where it joins the manifold. If it's at all loose, it could be sucking extra air at that point, sapping vacuum. The other place to lose vacuum and pick up air is at the joints between the manifold and the head.

To test for that, when you get the tractor turning and running, lean out your choke to keep it running and spray something combustible near the carb and head joints on the manifold. If it picks up and runs better, you've located the air leak.

Early spring it started running rough and I had to put the choke on a little bit. It kept needing more. I took the intake pipe off and sprayed carb cleaner in with the engine running with the throttle up just enough to have a good rpm. That did the trick. Eventually the problem came back which is why I added the small inline filter between the carb and sed bowl. I tried the carb cleaner solution again but whatever junk it picked up if could not remove. That’s why I tried the gas additive. I had not thought about it picking up air. The starter has never given me any problems in the years I have had it. There is a first time for everything.
I would like to expand on how this all came about and why I thought it was the solenoid and see if I am missing something. My Super a has a solenoid mounted in the dash under the cultivator lift levers with an old key ignition mounted where the turn selector knob was. + is hot – ground is how it is set up and it is 12V. It was this way when I inherited it. Hot wire runs straight to starter from solenoid. When I turned the key there was a small pop and flash on the + terminal. It actually melted a little tiny spot where it flashed. From then on the solenoid would click when I turned the key but nothing else would happen. I thought I had a grounded wire but found none. I replaced the pos cable and battery connector. Still nothing. The battery was not old but I wanted to make sure. I took off the battery connections and tried to jump it off using good heavy duty cables from our suv while it was running. Turned the key and it popped and had the tiniest flash on the suv battery. I hooked the battery back up and grounded the solenoid to see what that did and it just clicked like turning the key. That is when I thought of the hand crank and could not turn it. That’s pretty much the play by play.


Mike

If the fuel/air/choke issue arose gradually, you can't rule out a pinhole in the manifold that's growing. What kind of shape is it in?

M Leberman: First off, toss that inline filter in the dumpster. Restore the sediment bowl to factory specs with screen. Your tractor has a fuel restriction created by you, that inline filter.

When you get the fuel system corrected, grab a 3/4 wrench, back the starter mount bolts off until started unlocks. Your engine is not seized, just a simple starter lock. If you want to eliminate that in the future, throw the old
Bendix starter drive in the dumpster, and buy yourself a new clutch type starter drive, made by Bendix also. Probably only available at CaseIH.

I would have to agree the others on a stuck starter. Some times they can be a you know what to pull if they have been run a while while engaged.
Good luck & keep us posted on what works

I also doubt the engine is stuck. Also agree about ditching the gas filter. It's a gravity flow system and there are already 2 screens that restrict flow.

I would also bet the starter is locked. It was in neutral when you hand cranked, right? I would loosen it and rock the wheels while in high gear as suggested.

As the others said, i'll bet its the starter. My 53 SA does the same thing. At the farm we used to have a wrench in the tool box for field fixes all the time> Loosened up the bolts, pulled the starter rod quick and it'd free up. Now that i own and restored the tractor it still does it (never changed the starter). One time tried pull starting it as i thought the battery was dead and it wouldnt let go. Then it dawned on my to loosen up the starter and away she went!

Starter problem I had on my 100, and my friends Super A, was mouse nest in the flywheel chamber and getting stuck in the gears and jamming the starter, take off the starter and clean out the mess, then it works. If that is your problem, could be just a jammed starter too, like the others said.
Same fix.
Good luck.

Real simple...

#1 - fuel flow is inhibited... Either the tank outlet, line or carburetor... Carb cleaner sprayed in a carb isn't going to fix it. Time to break out the wrenches... Look at the entire system, even if you have to disassemble it... From tank to cylinder head.

#2. Was it in gear when you tried to turn it over by hand?

#3. Fix the electrical system properly... instead of mickey mousing around with it.

If it was in neutral go for the starter issue everyone has told you to look into... Deeper than that is going to be fun. You should be able to grab the fan and turn that 113 over by hand... even with the plugs in...

Thankfully backing out the starter and rocking the tractor worked she is turning freely. The manifold is the one spot thing that is not in the best of shape. It has had a patch welded onto the side of it. It had not occurred to me that a leak there would mess with the fuel air mix. How much would that effect?

M Leberman: Where is that patch, intake or exhaust manifold. Exhaust manifold leak will not affect you fuel-air mixture. It might burn the valves. Now if the leak is on the intake manifold, then it will affect the fuel air mixture.

It seems to me you allowing this thread to make this far more complicated than it really is. Go back to my original post and fix what is reaaly wrong first. Get rid of that damn inline filter, restore the IH factory screen system. Get rid of that old starter drive. Then fix up your manifold, if necessary.