I think I hooked up the magneto as it was after taking the cable off for cleaning and painting. I didn't touch the inside of the magneto. The tractor ran when I got it.

Now it says in the manual, that when you want to start the engine (crank start), pull out the magneto knob to the start position. And then choke it, brakes, etc. Then fire it up. When you want to shut down, push the button in. Well, when I pull the button out and release it it snaps right back to where it was and I guess the "off" position. What am I missing here? I've attached a couple of pictures which may or may not help.

I'd say what you have there is a VERY early mechanical grounding mechanism for your A. For the tractor to run you leave your cable in the rest position. When ity's running and you want to stop it you pull on the cable, whcih slides the internal block onto the contact to ground the mag/kill the motor. Hold the cable until the motor is stopped and then release, when the spring will move the block that actually makes the ground back out of the way.

The instructions you are following are for the two-position switch. In that case the grounding stud on the mag connects to a wire that goes back to a terminal on the switch. That switch, when in/down, grounds the mag, when out/up it breaks the ground connection.

IH switched (if you'll pardonnez le pun) from one to the other in early 1940.

Thanks Scotty.

This is a 1939, Serial number 1482, one of the first thousand.

So I guess that the magneto is "live" and ready to go now. Right?

Oughta be ready to go.

I'll let you know when my arm falls off from cranking!!! LOL!!

Thanks!

Aha! That early, eh? (I guess it would be!)

By way of encouragement, I went through a longer-than-it-should-have-taken restoration of a BN, a family tractor. The delays were all work conflicts. Just to keep the story short, I rebuilt the motor in the spring of 2002 and it was spring of '07 when I finally had her ready to fire up. Maintained it during that time by pulling the plugs and giving a few swift whirls of the crank, adding a little oil on top of the pistons every couple of months.

Came time to start it after having everything painted. Really just the chassis and radiator, not at all ready to drive. I hadn't heard the old girl runnin' in twenty years. I kid you not, third pull of the crank, she fired and ran. The occasion was generally regarded as sufficiently momentous to warrant the ceremonious consumption of two fingers of Dalwhinnie, and the rest of the evening was spent dialing in the carb and governor.

Honest, if you've got your mag timed up right and everything else is in order, it oughta be as simple as that.

On another note, one of the last sticking points on my BN was that the guide bracket for the starter rod had gone missing. I'd been hearing about a fella just about a hundred miles down the road in Jonesboro, ME that lines up a bunch of letter series and numbered Farmalls (up to a 450) out along US Rte. 1. Drove down there one fine morning to look 'em over, thinkin' especially to eyeball one of those brackets. My heart got pumpin' when I saw the old A in the lineup. Got there, and it was like yours, no place for a starter motor and the mechanical ground for the mag. Nice to see and look over for the differences, but not a bit of help for my problem!

Good luck with yours! Let us know how you make out gettin' her goin'.