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old odie
08-13-2006 16:48:51
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Good news is I finally got out to the weekend place to change the coolant on the sidemount distributor 1950 8N I bought in June. Changed the oil and filter about 3 weeks ago, and have ran it maybe a half hour since. Had bought a new petcock valve from this website for the engine block to replace the cobbled together plug that was in it when I bought the tractor. Bad news is the new petcock seems to be a hair to big to fit the hole, so I had to put the old one back in. Good news is the engine oil still looks clean and pretty, not contaminated. Bad news is after the old coolant finished draining out, black, oily looking sludge kept draining out of both the engine block drain and the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. I left and let it drain, came back an hour and a half later, and it was still oozing out. Was running out of time, so ran the garden hose through the fill cap on the top of the radiator with the drains open, and it filled back up with water gushing out both drains. Bad news is after the water was all out again, the black gunk kept on oozing out. Seriously out of time now, so closed the petcock and put the plug back in the block, and filled it up to move back in the garage. Good news is that neither the petcock or plug leaked, bad news is only took about 8 quarts to fill it - supposed to be 12. Fired it up, and it ran about 30 seconds, then died. 6V system. Cranked over same as always (since I bought it), but just wouldn"t start at all. Checked the distributor cap, and all spark plug wires were tight and bright, but the center wire was loose and corroded, pulled right out without any resistance at all. So, guess next step is probably to replace it. may as well replace all spark plugs and wires at the same time - no idea how old, but they are all covered with the same red spray can paint as the rest of the engine, etc. Pushed the tractor into garage - glad these old beauties are so light and no ballast in tires on mine. Don"t think I had flooded it when trying to start it. Didn"t want to totally drain the battery, either. So started looking for electrical problems after a few minutes of not catching. Question - where did all that black gunk come from, what is it, and am I in deep doo doo with it? Good news is that my wife says maybe I ought to keep the 8N to work on as a hobby and buy a new tractor to do the mowing, grading, etc., out on our 100+ acres of recreational land. (Recreational = too hilly, rocky, poor to farm it). Saw a couple of JD dealers advertising new package deals on JD 5103 2WD tractor in the Texas Electric Coop magazine. Wonder if these might be good options. Anyway, long story short, I love this forum and any and all advice, opinions, sympathy, etc., will be appreciated. Not trying to make the 8N look like new, just enjoying puttering around and trying to make it a good running little tractor. Thanks for any responses.
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