9N with a serious timing problem

When I'm on TDC (on #1 piston) between the compression and power stroke (made a tool to feel piston location) the rotor is almost exactly in the 12 o'clock position (0 or 360 degrees)between 4 and 1. I'd have thought it ought to be just about on #1's electrode pad on the cap, ~315 degrees (CW). Isn't this thing gear driven? How did it get 45 degrees out of time? The shaft through the distributor meshes correctly to the tractor and I'd have though if I had broken a tooth out of a gear such that the timing had slipped, I'd be able to feel something on the rotor when it turns over. Has anybody ever had something like this happen to them? Any ideas?

I'm afraid my next move is to pull the front end off to see if the timing marks on the gears line up (and I REALLY don't want to do that). They say the world is evolving into chaos and me pulling the front off would surely get us there faster. - John From Ferndale

Look at this picture, and notice the crankshaft key at the 9:00 position as you're facing the front of the tractor, and the slot for the distributor drive is positioned vertically, and offset to the right, as viewed from the front of the tractor.

If you can get the center crank bolt out of your front pulley, and note visually that the key is at the 9:00 position, the distributor drive should be as pictured. (You may have to rotate the crankshaft 1 turn.) If the relationship between the keyway position and the distributor drive slot is precisely as pictured, you can rule out the timing gears being bad, and having slipped.

Its quite possible that your pressed-on bake-lite camshaft gear has slipped on the end of the camshaft. It is NOT KEYED. Unfortunately, the only "cure" is a new 4-bolt camshaft and gear. I know of no way for amature mechanic to re-set the camshaft gear and correctly index it to the lobes. The only way you're gonnna find out is to remove the cylinderhead and front timeing gear cover and watch everything move..... ..Dell

Now I've got questions on how to get a replacement gear indexed. I see what looks like a machined key slot in the cam (or at least where the gear was bolted on) and kind of a matching key slot on the block behind it. Is that what you use to get the gear in the right quadrature (ie, align the two key slots and the mark on the gear should be in-line with the mark on the crank)?

Next question: Is the gasket that I screwed up between the front cover and the pan actually part of the entire pan gasket such that I'm going to have to take the pan off to replace the gasket when I button this thing back up?

And a question for the moderator: How do I embed a picture (jpg or whatever) in a post? I've got a dandy picture of when good gears go bad.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond. I mentioned what an incredable support group this form is for the "tractor challanged" to a gal at work and now she is trying to get her boyfriend (who also has a tractor) to take a look at the site. Thank you Yesterdays Tractors.
- John

Pressed on and bake-lite, heck, I'm suprised it lasted this long. What 65 years, if I replace it, it won't have be replace again until my son is my age. - John

I found that exact same thing with my 8n.... just last night. I didn't have a tool, just my finger feelig for max compression, and a low battery turning it over. My rotor was *definitely* at 12 o'clock when my finger was being blown off the open spark plug hole. I tested again with #2, and it was at 9 oc'lock.

I've fought getting my tractor started for a month and finally, through a stroke of luck, replaced my coil today and she fired right up.

Hope you are as lucky,

jt
(who did a lot of unnecessary, but needed work on his tractor too)

By the way, the tool is real handy. With a hacksaw, trim the crimped rim off the metal part of an old spark plug so you can pull the white guts out, replace it with a piece of a 5/8 oak dowel. Take a length of #12 AWG solid copper wire and spin it using a vice and drill until it is straight and rigid. Drill a hole through the center of the dowel so you can put the wire through it, bend it into a dogleg shape that will reach over the piston (it will take a couple of tries to get a shape you can get in the spark plug hole). You won't be able too feel much of the stroke but the air coming up around the wire in the hole will let you know it's a compression stroke and the wire will pop up at TDC. - John