High quality parts, NOT!! RANT and RAVE

Yesterday my C started misfiring and stumbling every time I let the clutch out, but it would smooth out and run right after it got moving. I was clipping a pasture with the sickle bar, and managed to finish up without it getting any worse.

So, this morning I dug into the distributor, expecting to find some moisture and maybe have to reset the points. Got it open and it was full of powdered rust, so I pulled it out for a complete disassembly and cleaning. I got it all clean, actually plugged the shaft bore and bead blasted the housing, and started re-assembling it. I pulled a new set of Genuine IH, made in USA points off the shelf, installed and gapped them, re-installed the distributor, and tried to dead time it. GAAA!!! NO CONTINUITY THROUGH THE NEW POINTS. Did the clean rag, clean paper thing, nothing, rubbed the points vigorously together, zip, cursed a lot. Just what I really want to do, file a brand new set of points to make them work, no. Finally gritted my teeth and hit them with a Scotch-brite disk on my die grinder, took two hits of that before I got a good contact.

Ten minute job wound up taking two hours, not all the fault of the points, they were just a bit of added aggravation when I thought was nearly finished. I guess I should just get the TSC, made in Mexico, points next time, at least I will be expecting them to screw up. The last pair of them I had snapped the spring, and the tractor stopped right there.

It's been a while since ANY points have been "Made in the USA."

You sure it wasn't just because they'd been sitting around for several years, and developed corrosion on the surfaces?

Quite possible. I don't recall when I bought that particular box, and it may have sat around in a warehouse for a long time before that.