1923 Fordson, Model F

Power comes from the terminal on the front of the clutch housing on the left side (from driver's seat looking forward). This wire goes to the contacts on the bottom of the coil box. On the back of the coil box (side next to the head) are two rows of terminal screws (8 total). Here's where my memory fails me so I'll just say one row goes to the spark plugs and the other row goes to the timing cap on the front of the camshaft. I have a 4 conductor cord on my tractor which keeps things neat. There should be a roller under the cap that grounds the proper coil which opens its points causing the corresponding cylinder to fire.

As an aside, there is enough end play in my tractor's crankshaft to keep the flywheel generator ('magneto', in Ford terms) from opening the points. I have a 6 volt battery (positively grounded) connected to the coil box through a switch so I have spark to start the engine. Once running I open the switch to the battery and immediately close another switch to the generator. Do not connect your battery to the generator because there are permanent magnets mounted to the flywheel that will lose their magnetism when hit with DC power.

The serial number of my '23 Fordson is 283322. How close is yours?

Stan Theman

• Project Fordson

please e-mail me back.

waiting to hear from you.
Many thanks

United Kingdom