Brain fart

I will try to make a long story short. About 4 years ago I bought a 47 2N Ford at auction. It looked good, had new tires, had been changed to 12 volt but the wiring was a birds nest. It wasn't stuck but didn't know if it ran. Ended up getting it for $400 and hauled it home. Started tinkering with it and found the gas tank was rusted BAD and sediment bowl was cracked. Opted for new gas tank, fuel shut off, and sediment bowl. Found all the bolts broken that hold the front wheels on and wheels were welded to the hubs. Found used wheels and hubs at a tractor show. I then got busy and the tractor sat in my garage for awhile. Finally got around to fixing the wiring and got a new coil, points and plug wires. Installed new tank, put some gas in it, hit the starter and eureka it runs. Drove it around the barnyard a bit. No smoke or engine noise so down the road I go. Drove it down to the crossroad and turned around. Half way back it died and wouldn't start again. Ok, figured the carb needs cleaned. Cleaned carb and installed a rebuild kit and it fired right up. Took it last fall to plow my parents garden and brought it back and put it in the garage. Fast forward to this week and I went to start it and got no spark. It's a front mount distributor so I removed distributor and coil and found the points to be out of adjustment. Adjusted points and pu'tt it back on the tractor and still no spark to the plugs. So here I go, take it off the tractor and adjust and clean and lube and put it back on still nothing. Off again and on again on, off, on, off, on #^%%&%&#%$#$^ I will wait til later. Last night I go out determined to get this thing going. First thing I have to clean off work bench from previous project. Start putting away tools and things back where they belong and there it is. The answer to all my problems. Laying on the bench was the rotor that is supposed to go under the distributor cap. Put it back on and it fired right up. Now you know why I don't post alot. It reveals too much about myself. ROFL
Hope everyone got a good chuckle at my expense. LOL
Craig

Did you ever think you would be having communication in a medium that allowed you to use a word like that but forbids you to mention the name of any recent president? Just commenting. I have no luck with my 2N so I will pass on the question.

LOL don't feel bad I have always learned if you don't have time to clean up you don't have time to do the job.

I had similar a while ago. Neighbor moved and needed to get rid of everything didn't want his IH340 anymore so gave it to me. I found the valves stuck and several bent push rods. Got it all feed up rods replaced and it ran good. I gave it a quick paint job and after using it for a summer I didn't need it so sold it on ebay. Guy was coming from out of state to pick it up so as he's coming I went to get it out and ready to load. It wouldn't start. Hmm power to coil, check. Points are set, ok. Distributor turns. Now why doesn't it get spark? Swapped out the coil wire. Still nothing. I pulled the rotor and it looked ok but swapped it for another one and that was it. Wow that took a load off.

Don't be too hard on yourself..... I once installed a new cam and lifters in a 350 Chevy, only to find my real problem was a broken fuel pump return spring. Kinda funny how long you remember those kind of lessons.

I can promise you that you are not the only person that has done that.. LOL

craig, its not your fault. i blame it on barn gnomes!!! they are ornery lil cusses that come out after you shut the shed door. they will mess with anything they can get their grubby lil mitts on!!! rat poison and traps dont work, but mothballs and dryer sheets will slow em down a little. thats my story and im sticking to it!!!!

Back in the late '70s the clutch pedal in my '66 Malibu went to the floor with no reaction from the clutch. Like an idiot, I assumed something internal so pulled the tranny and clutch, replaced the sort-of-worn pressure plate and disk, put back together, still had problem. So THEN I decided to check more closely as I should have done in the first place, and all it was was a cracked bell crank. Easy to replace, except it was above freezing in my garage when I started the job and -4 F. when I finished two days later; Iowa weather does that in December. Wind chill was a brisk minus-54 F. when I was scavenging a bell crank from the local salvage yard. It taught me an embarrassingly useful lesson about careful troubleshooting.

Me and the missus been passing something back and forth all season long, so haven't gotten outside much. Will 'just' get to feeling better when all of a sudden it hits again and everything starts spinning. Can tell you how many hours I've spent online this season, and how many brain farts I've had - some so embarrassing that I don't even wanna log in anymore! Has been a weird season and will be thankful when its finally over with so we can get the house aired out good.

You shouldn't worry about having such setbacks, or even of making them public (...for the WORLD to see!) as it really does happen to everyone now and then. And seems to happen more and more as we get older, at least from my experience. ...Sadly, I'm not one of them persons who can keep his big fat fingers shut! *LOL*

Blam it on 5he Hide the parts Fairey. We all get the chance to walk along righ along behind you. Funny though.

Must have been a bad batch from the factory ;-) In '79 I was driving home in my '66 El Camino SS when my clutch pedal went to the floor. Jammed it in 2nd and limped into a parking lot with a Sears store. Popped the hood and found my problem, a broken lever that went from the pedal to the clutch. Didn't have any tools, went to Sears and got a short length of dog chain and a pair of cheap pliers. Tried to hook it back up enough to get home but it wouldn't hold so I called home and got a ride. Took it off and went to my uncle's garage where he promptly welded it back up. Got another ride back to town, installed it with the correct tools and drove it home. Never had another problem with it. I suppose the 4:56 rear end and a hot small block before I got it lead to an early failure. When I got it the big cam and stiff gears had to go, the rest was good enough.

Don't feel bad. I was almost out of gas in my pickup last week and I live a long way from town so I thru in 5 gallons. Only problem is I picked up the wrong 5 gallon bucket. You guessed it; it was diesel. If the wind hadn't been blowing so hard I probably would have smelled it. I bet most people don't know that you can make a gas engine run on diesel by advancing the timing and pulling the choke out! After some time trying to figure out what was wrong, (not going to admit how much time) the hurricane finally quit and I finally smelled the diesel smoke. All I could do was laugh at myself!

The more you know about something the more you can imagine what it is that might be wrong and how involved it will be.

That only works if you haven't forgotten more than you can still remember. :b

Hey Craig i promise its not just you. If we all here could tell you the stories of stuff like that we did you they would have to start another web site lol