Will not keep running?

Lets see, sometimes it starts and runs for about a minute and quits, then it'll start again after about an hour of cooling off or sometimes it take all nite before it will re-start and? run for about a minute (again?). The LONG time before restart is generally indicative of BAD IGNITION COIL. And yes, short time running could also be indicative of really BAD IGNITION COIL.

Unfortunately, there are some well meaning but ill-informed shadetree mechanics that physically by-pass the "infamous ballast resistor" mounted on the backside of the dashpanel under the ammeter in the miss-guided attemt to get hotter sparkies for eazier starting.

Well yeah, you'll get hotter sparkies for about 1 hour the first time before the insulative tar melts and shorts out the internal coil wire and then the sparkies quit....until the tar hardens overnite. And guess what? It'll start up again thus proving that the shadetree fixx of hotter sparkies works (for a while).

So based upon what information you have shared, I'd guess that you have a BAD IGNITION COIL..... ..respectfully, Dell the mindreader
(grin)

ONLY the squarecan frontmount 4-nipple distributor requires the mandantory "infamous ballast resistor". The 5-nipple roundcan coil, no resistor, ok? Ballast resistors are like lightbulbs, when they go "bad" you don't get any sparkle.

As I originally said, 5-15 seconds of run time is generally a bad condensor. BUT the 4-6 hours of "cool-off" time is indicative of a bad frontmount ignition coil that has been "COOKED" by overheating it with a by-passed ballast resistor. Your extra wire is almost a sure guarentee of a by-passed ballast resistor.

Remember, the infamous ballast resistor is mounted on the dashpanel under the ammeter. It usually looks like a "spring" in a ceramic mounting block. Sometime white, sometimes black, ?quen sabe?

The ballast resistor is mounted on a 3-terminal junctionblock. The center terminal comes from the battery somewere. Then one of your igntion switch wires connects to the same center terminal. The other ignition switch wire is supposed to connect to oneside of the ballast resistor terminal. The electricity then goes THRU the ballast resistor and out the otherside of the ballast resistor. The 1-terminal ignition coil wire is supposed to connect to it. If'n the 'lectrons don't go thru the ballast resistor to the coil, yer gonna burn out your squarecan 6 volt ignition coil. (and probably have)

Unfortunately the OEM 6 volt squarecan ignition coil is NOT ROBUST as we'd like'm to be.

Anytime someone tells me they replaced their sparkie wires, a WARNING goes off. Remember, the 4-nipple crabcap firing order is 1,2,4,3 CCW.....that means:
sparkie #1 is connected to nipple #1 at 10 o'clock
sparkie #2 is connected to nipple #2 at 7 o'clock
now pay attention.....it gets tricky here
sparkie #4 is connected to nipple #3 at 4 o'clock
sparkie #3 is connected to nipple #4 at 2 o'clock
vola', firing order 1,2,4,3 CCW, isn't that amazing?

The amazing thing about these ol'N-Engines are soooo good, that they will run (eventually) mis-wired with only 2 cylinders sparkling. Hint: its usually the #3&4 sparkie wires that get crossed up.

One other "obscure" short-runtime possiblity. Water in the gas. Take and drain a bunch of gas outta the carb drainplug into a glass mason canning jar and lettitt settle. I once drained 4 quart jars of cloudy gasoline outta my N-tractor. It took all day for water sepparate outta the gasoline. Smelled like gasoline, would even start but wouldn't run very long before stalling out.

Don't gitt overwhelmed, the N-Tractor was designed for Model-T horsefarmers, you can operate a computer (grin)..... ...Dell

• nseries.com wiring diagrams

If'n ya gottsa square frontmount distributor, ittsa 2-bolt undoo, 15 minute job on kitchen table to replace the condensor and check/replace the ignition points. (gap = 0.015") Generally, you just buy BOTH the points and condensor innna "kit". The frontmount distributor is driven by "off-set tang" and unless you use big hammer, you can't re-install it outta time. Just start both 5/16 bolts by finger and rotate the distributor rotor until everything slipps together, then tighten the 1/2" hex bolts. Snap the distributor cap inplace, snapp the square coil inplace and you should be good to go.

And NO, you don't haffta unplug the sparkie wires from the 4-terminal flatcap to remove the distributor, just unclippie and push cap aside. BTW, the firing order is 1,2,4,3 CCW..... ....Dell

Soundguy