48-8N Dist. problem

After I bought the tractor is ran good for two days and then started missing very badly. Pervious owner had had it tuned-up with new points and cond. When I called him about it said that it was the dist. cap so I bought a new one along with a tune-up kit and replaced the cap, rotor, plugs and wires. It will sometimes start and run good and then start missing or it will be missing from the get-go. I noticed that if I press the spring clip on the left side of the cap(facing the dist)it will smooth out. Inspecting the cap shows even wear on all contacts except the top right. I think this is #2. You can rotate the rotor by has a 1/4" or so and the shaft has a little play. Do you guy's have clue as to what is wrong here? Thanks in advance for any help.

As an aside: I still don't have a clue as to why pressing on the dist cap caused the tractor to smooth out. How would that change the point gap?

But you state..... "press the spring clip on the left side of the cap....and it smoothes out", thats a BIG CLUE. Gently stretch the springie-thingie underneath your frontmount coil for a more secure contact with your distributor feedthru.

Note also, the #8 X 3/16 points mounting screws can wear out and loose their ability to stay tight and your points will loose their gap setting of 0.015" and cause sparkie problems too.

You do know that you can remove your distributor's 2-bolts and work on it at the kitchen table, don't you? The distributor is driven by an off-set cam and can not be re-installed incorrectly. (unless you use a BIG hammer)..... .....respectfully, Dell

LOL,
John

tom a

BUT be very careful about putting the front mount in wrong. My New Holland dealer sells one front mount distributer *a month* to folks who put theirs in wrong and snap the case when they snug up the bolts. I did it my first time, knowing full well that there was a right and wrong way...the wrong way just doesn't feel all that wrong until you hear "snap." After you've done that once both ways, then yes it is impossible to do it wrong. But a distributer a month from a not-all-that-big dealer (and not all to the same guy) makes me think I'm not the only stupid one around, so just be careful. It *is* much easier working on it off the tractor, though.

good luck,
Tom
'48 8N "Molly"