What am I missing?

Livin the Dream · Jul 9, 2011

50 Super A....it's almost been two weeks since I aquired this little gem. Bought it non-running. Replaced, points, condenser, changed oil, dumped old gas. Had no spark at first....now we have lots of spark, she fires but just won't run. I know timing is an issue but I got it set where she is firing the most and figure I have to be close, until she runs there's not much I can do with that. What am I missing....would love to have it running by the weekend.

Hopefull

Allan in NE · Jul 9, 2011

Have you given it a compression test yet?

They need fuel, air and ignition to pop, any one of which will make 'er drop the ball. :>)

Allan

Jg20601 · Jul 9, 2011

I had 2 similar problems in the past.

The first was no current was going to the coil after it started.
The second was rust in the steel fuel line.

When I hit a dead end, I agree with the other poster. Start with the compression check and then recheck that everything is correct.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 9, 2011

If compression low fill the crankcase with
transmission fluid and pull it around in
gear with the plugs out. That might seat
the rings enough for it to start.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 9, 2011

I would remove the spark plugs and put a spoon full of gas in each plug hole.If the engine fires a few times but no start i would pull the breather hose and hold my hand over the carb inlet. You should feel a strong suction! If not you may have stuck intake valves of maby a intake manifold leak? Gas might run out of a carb but it has to be sucked into the cyls to run.Bud.

sflem849 · Jul 9, 2011

(quoted from post at 06:48:44 07/09/11) I would remove the spark plugs and put a spoon full of gas in each plug hole.If the engine fires a few times but no start i would pull the breather hose and hold my hand over the carb inlet. You should feel a strong suction! If not you may have stuck intake valves of maby a intake manifold leak? Gas might run out of a carb but it has to be sucked into the cyls to run.Bud.

I have a variation of that. I use carb cleaner to see if it will pop. It is way easier on an engine than starting fluid, but will accomplish the same thing. If you are pulling the tractor it will be more of a challange to shoot it in the carb. I ALWAYS take off the intake pipe if I am spraying carb cleaner.
My money is on a cruddy fuel system. You mentioned you dumped old gas. If you think it was bad in the tank imagine what it was like in the carb and the fuel lies! (If it was even there, it probably evaporated into heavy varnish)

Jim Becker · Jul 9, 2011

I suggest going off the other direction from what everyone else said.

Go back and set the timing CORRECTLY. Having the timing off will make it difficult or impossible to start and guessing at it isn't good enough. Fix the things you know are wrong. Then if it still won't start, look for other problems. The procedure for setting the timing is in the Owner's Manual and easy to do.

Livin the Dream · Jul 9, 2011

(quoted from post at 07:45:30 07/09/11) I suggest going off the other direction from what everyone else said.

Go back and set the timing CORRECTLY. Having the timing off will make it difficult or impossible to start and guessing at it isn't good enough. Fix the things you know are wrong. Then if it still won't start, look for other problems. The procedure for setting the timing is in the Owner's Manual and easy to do.

Just to back up a bit... I also have completely cleaned the carb, dumped the tank fuel and seditment bowl and cleaned out the gas line. I know it has good compression, how good not sure but doubt that is my issue. I have no air hose between air cleaner and carb at this time...don't think that would keep her from starting but not sure? As far as timing... I have not been able to locate the notch or any indicator line to set the timing off the clutch plate that they refer to unless I'm just blind....I certainly could be missing it but not sure exactly where I should be looking beyond that..... thanks for all the tips... we will keep working at it.

Hopefull

sflem849 · Jul 9, 2011

Get it to start coming up to compression on #1 and have a wife/buddy look for the mark. I had to clean the snot out of stuff to find the mark. There was crud cacked in the notch so I couldn't even find it even after I scraped it off. I found it when I wire brushed the thing when I was nearing TDC.

Jim Becker · Jul 9, 2011

The timing mark is usually hard to find. It is on the outer surface of the flywheel. Once found, you sight through the hand hole and line the mark against a rib on the front lower cover.

Tom Fleming · Jul 9, 2011

Well, I have yet to use the timing mark on a Farmall to time it. #1 piston on TDC compression stroke. Place the distributor or mag appropriately so that the rotor i just on #1.

That will get you where you need to be. This of course assumes that the governor gear is timed correctly to the cam gear. I spent 3 weeks trying to convert my A over to mag from distributor and could not get the timing right. Finally, I pulled the cover off the govenor, and sure enough, it was off 4 teeth.

Others may disagree with me, but I have no use for timing marks on F series or letter series Farmalls.......

ps. on the F series, it's just a hole for mice to get in and ruin your clutch. FWIW. IMHO

sflem849 · Jul 9, 2011

(quoted from post at 12:08:28 07/09/11) The timing mark is usually hard to find. It is on the outer surface of the flywheel. Once found, you sight through the hand hole and line the mark against a rib on the front lower cover.

I thought it might be there on the little guys. On my MD it is up in front of the engine.

When we were doing a CA Allis this winter we had to look through the inspection hole. That was a PITA. It was really dirty in there.

For my real Dad, I didn't use it to time the MD either. I was using it to set the lifters.

Wayta · Jul 9, 2011

You have an array of answers from a lot of very knowledgable, skilled Farmall enthusiasts. Myself, a layman without much mechanical skill, but rely a lot on process. Someone mentioned the three ingredients to a successful recipe. Here is my starter point on a unit that won't fire up:
unloose the fuel line at the carb and see if any fuel flows. If not, take off the sediment unit, clean up real good, go to a hobby shop and buy a piece of aluminum tubing that fits in the intake of the sediment unit. Take it home, put it down in the throat, cut it an inch above, and put it all back in. Just did it on two units today. Now they are running. Simple, but a first step prior to all the heavy duty suggestions, which I realize in fact may be the problem.

mongo001 · Jul 10, 2011

I recently revived a 300. Lots of spark but no fire. Bottom of the gas tank was water. Drained tank, flushed fuel line, put in new gas, fired on the first crank.

Tom Fleming · Jul 10, 2011

I'll go back to my post. If this thing has a magneto, are the plug and coil wires copper core? Mag's do NOT, i repeat, do NOT like resistor wires ( or plugs for that matter).

Livin the Dream · Jul 10, 2011

(quoted from post at 02:52:09 07/10/11) I'll go back to my post. If this thing has a magneto, are the plug and coil wires copper core? Mag's do NOT, i repeat, do NOT like resistor wires ( or plugs for that matter).

Good Morning folks, I will recap for just a minute. I have good fuel flow to carb, cleaned the sediment bowl, cleaned the carb, original copper wires with cleaned ends, original cap well cleaned, new points, new condenser, new gas, new oil, good spark. I needed a break from being able to start her up so decided to clean and prime instead.

I bought a new rotor cap and distributor cap but the distributor cap didn't to fit as tight as I thought it should. Wasn't able to fit it as tight as old one, new rotor box mentioned something about filing down the hub but I didn't understand how that would make the cap not fit correctly, sorry...

Howerve despite using the old cleaned cap and cleaned up rotor I have gotten it to fire repeatedly she just won't stay running.

What am I missing?

Livin the Dream

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Allan in NE

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Jg20601

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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sflem849

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Jim Becker

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Livin the Dream

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sflem849

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Wayta

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