Farmall B

It has plenty of gas. I checked spark on all four cylinders and it is good. I checked it with an extra plug I had. Should I pull the plugs and check them out? Spark was good enough that I could feel it up to my elbow if I touched the wrong thing. I am thinkin I am missing something.
Switch is obviously on. Gas line is on. What am I missing? Been scratching my...er...head on this one for a bit now.

By the way, I was not imagining things. The alternator DOES make a little pop now and again and a little smoke comes out.

Have you timed this baby yet? With the way you described the old cap floating/setting crooked, you may be out of time.

Pull your coil wire out of the distributor cap. Pull your #1 plug and turn the engine until it's coming up on compression on #1. Look into the #1 cylinder with a flashlight and get the piston to the top. You might have to rock the engine back and forth a little bit with the fan to get it centered on top as close as you can get it.

Now comes the potentially ugly part. Look up through the hand-hole on the bottom of your bell housing. With any luck you will see a finely scored/stamped line running front to back on the flywheel. If you really are living right, you might even be able to make out some lettering alongside it that says DC 1-4. (These marks are very often obscured in the rust on the surface of the flywheel.) This should all be very near the bottom if you have the piston lined up fairly close. Just ahead of the flywheel you will be looking at the back of the flyheel cover, and it should have a pretty prominent nub, oblong pointing vertically. This is what you want to line that mark on the flywheel up with. When they are lined up, you will be at TDC on #1. Couldn't hurt to reach up while you're down there and dab a little brightly colored paint at the front of that line on the flywheel, just to make it easier to find next time. ( I also find it handy to clean up a spot on the crank pulley and on the timing cover, and paint two small marks there. Saves having to crawl under the tractor every time you need TDC.)

Now take a crayon and mark a spot on the distributor body as close to being in line with the radius to the tower for the #1 plug wire as you can get it. Pop your cap off just to make sure that your rotor is pointing fairly close to this mark, and put the cap back on.

Just ahead of distributor body you'll see a couple of bolts that tighten a flange down onto what looks like a thick washer. Loosen these two bolts a little bit, just enough to be able to turn the distributor. (Can't remember now if they take a 1/2 or a 9/16, but I know I need a stubby to get to one of mine.) Looking from the cap end, rotate your distributor about 30* clockwise.

Now you'll be back on familiar ground. Get the end of that coil wire that's dangling loose near a good ground. With the ignition on, start turning the distributor back counter-clockwise until you get a spark. Tighten back down the two bolts on the base of the distributor and you should be set. You'll have spark at TDC with no advance.

The books suggest that you leave the coil wire off and turn it by hand a coupla more times, just to confirm you're on. Every other spark you get from the coil wire (i.e., when you're firing #1 and #4) you should also be lined up on the mark on the flywheel. Every other spark in between will be on 2 and 3, and you have no mark for them

You could use a timing light later, but be aware that the distributor, if it's working right, will advance the spark by 17* at 600 rpm, and 20* at 800, so you'd have to find some way of measuring a mark at one of those points if you want to check it running.

Good news is there's no time like the present! You need to be at TDC on #1 to check this out and fix it, so get there like I described below.

On the lifter side of the rocker is a threaded rod with a slot in the end, and a jam nut below it. While holding the slot steady with a screwdriver, back off the jam nut. (This may already be loose and what caused it to come apart in the first place.) Then use the screwdriver to back out the threaded rod until you can slip the lift rod back under the rocker without forcing anything.

Pull that lift rod up out of there and roll it on the flattest surface you can find, looking to see if it is bent. It should be straight. If it is bent, you'll need to replace it, but it could also be a sign of a stuck valve having caused things to come unsprung in the first place.

If the lift rod seems straight you can put it back in. It just drops into place. Before putting the rocker back over it, take a SMALL hammer and tap smartly without whacking on top of the valve and spring. Just enough to see if you can get ANY movement down and back up. If it doesn't move, or the hammer feels like it's hitting the head of a tight bolt, Or if it goes down and stays down, you likely have a stuck valve.

If it does move properly, you can reinstall the and reset the clearance with the rocker. The proper gap is .017" with the valves hot. You'll finsd a lot of discussion about what "hot" is and where to set the clearance on a "cold" engine. I use .018" in that circumstance. Back your jam nut off by hand a turn or two, and line the rocker arm back up over the lift rod and valve stem. Using your screwdriver, thread the rod back in until you get just the slightest tension on a .018" feeler gauge between the rocker and the valve stem. Holding the thread right where it is with the scredriver, tighten down the jam nut.

As far as the gunk, it's run with it so far. If you plan to go back in and check the valves "hot later, I'd leave it there for now. At some point, though, you need to go at it with some kerosene and a stiff parts cleaning brush, and don't spare the kerosene. It will all run back down to the crankcase, so you'll need to change at least your oil (before running the engine -- let it drain while you're checking your timing, and don't forget to put the drain plug back in before refilling!) and then do another change with filter after ten hours or so of running.

When the battery is discharged through the points like this, the points are often damaged beyond usefulness.

Turn on the ignition without cranking. You should see 4 amps discharge or so (tough to predict the exact reading with a 12 volt conversion of unknown quality) on your dashboard ammeter. No discharge? The points are likely toast. You can try cleaning them but in this case I'd replace them.

I don't want to be rude or patronizing, David, but I'm afraid you are doing things the hard way with this tractor.

Keep it indoors when not in use. Read the Owner's Manual and the articles for new tractor owners listed at left, and keep a shop manual handy. When you make repairs do them with the procedures outlined in the manual and with as high quality parts as you can find.

That way, your frustration factor will be greatly lowered.

Look at it this way; you originally subbed in the light switch because you didn't have time to wait for the correct part, right? How much time has that decision cost you since then?

For the record, I don't think you are rude or patronizing. Quite the opposite, I think you and several others have been helping me along nicely with my project. I have learned one heck of a lot and am still learning more every day I work on the B. I hope you will continue. Just so as you know, I have a manual sitting on the desk next to me that I use every day. It is a great resource but doesn't even come close to being as helpful as the wealth of practical experience I can access here. As to keeping the tractor indoors, well, I have five tractors. Two are inside because they are strong running and hard working. The remaining three tractors are fixer-uppers that I bought or was given as projects. They sit outside and are tarped when not in use.
As to the switch? It was a temporary fix until I can find a good used replacement. Michigan is in deep trouble with the economy at the moment. Gas prices are astronomical in the summer, work is hard to find and payment slow to come when you can find it. Sometimes the hard way is the only way. I get frustrated sometimes but I have my good moments too. Anyhow, if I can't fix it I can part it out and scrap the rest. Really can't lose. The switch only cost me about ten minutes and I will replace it soon if needed. Realistically though, why put $60 into a tractor that might be on it's way to China next month? Let's see if this thing is worth saving first.

Sorry. I had got the impression somehow you were a new tractor owner. I think I may be getting two threads mixed up.

Quote: ''I checked the static discharge and it is where it should be. I will look at the points again to see if they were damaged by the other switch. I am thinking not since I have a good spark etc.''

Yeah, if you have the proper static discharge and good, strong spark, the points may well be ok.

I don't know where you find the time to mess with five tractors. I have two and they are all the trouble I need...

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