BF Avery to fire and run?..$80 in the mail!...seri

This is what I have done so far:
-Replaced all oil and piston rings
-Professionally rebuilt starter and carburetor
-Replaced all wiring, starter solenoid, gauges, coil, distributor points and wires
-Re-seated valves and made adjustments for .006 and .008 intake/exhaust
-Double-checked camshaft and crankshaft alignment with both dots in line
-New gasoline every week
-Replaced internal parts within the distributor if I burned them out

This is what I do every time I try and start it:
-Turn the key and check for spark at each plug
-Check for 90+ psi at each piston. The 6 volt batter only turns it fast enough to get it to around 45-50 psi so I use a 12 volt booster on the frame and starter to basically jump start it with a charger on the 6 volt battery. I also put a little bit of oil in the cylinders to help the psi.
-Time the distributor by rotating the #1 cylinder (first cylinder next to the radiator) to TDC of the compression stroke as it shows in the hole located on the belly housing. Then I place the distributor in and rotate the rotor so it is directly underneath the point of the #1 cylinder point. I then usually move it slightly counter-clockwise so that the point is just about to break contact, which is usually about 1/8 inch at the outer edge. If I move it clockwise to wear it just breaks contact it would move about ¾ inch at the outer edge which seems way too far.
-Make sure the wires are 1-2-4-3 in clockwise direction.
-Give her some turns and hope that it fires at least on the first cylinder.
-Check for good gas flow at the spark plugs or simply squirt some ether at the intake throat of the manifold after taking the carburetor off.
-After a few turns I will rotate the distributor 180 degrees just to make sure that I am not off.

I get it to fire by placing a tiny bit of ether or gas in each cylinder on most days. I do find it odd that it will suck in through the exhaust a little bit between pushing out the exhaust manifold. I assume that is because it is not firing which allows the power stroke to suck in some air through an exhaust valve that is open. If you have any information that you believe would help me please forward or reply. I would greatly appreciate it and would consider it a bargain if I can get the Avery fired up! Thanks for reading this in advance since I included so much info.

Respectfully,

Steve Morgan 1-515-238-9407

I then dripped some ether, and not much, straight in the cylinder and turned it over. IT ACTUALLY, but barly, fired on all cylinders and I had a lot of white smoke but did not really "start". It seems like the timing is close but there is something else wrong. Could I have the wrong spark plugs in it? Maybe the don't produce spark that is "hot" enough?

Myrl...I couldn't remember what the .20 was for...is that the distance from the copper peice on the rotor to the points underneath the distributor cap or where the spark is created inside the distributor when the ?arm?peice? breaks contact and creates sparks. Sorry..new to some of this.

Thank you for the continued support!

Steve

I could not find this posting no matter what I tried over the past ?2? months. I finally found it and wanted to let everyone know that I have it purring like a kitten and I am VERY, VERY grateful for everyone's help. I am replying to your post since it was the gap in the contact point that led me to the fact that the condesor was shot and the contact was actually too worn as well. I believe it was from the 12 volt jump that I used directly on the starter approximately six times. I also moved the distributor cap slightly like you said over the phone and that got it started. Alberta Mike's description got me close but it was the counter-clockwise quarter turn that you described that got it to fire (thanks for the response though Mike!). Please reply to this email or call me with the following number and I can then mail you the $80. I am sure that I can remember your voice from our previous conversation. However, it you would rather post an email address using your user name I suppose that would ensure that it is actually your address. I wanted to find this posting because I will gladly pay up since I could have spent another month or two trying to figure it out. A deal is a deal!!!

Thanks again!

Steve Morgan

Thank you for the offer, and believe me I would take you up on it if I could, but the show is actually in Altoon, Iowa. It always amazes me how there seems to be six towns with the same name all over the US.

The tractor has a 6V coil which I replaced new about 6 months ago. I have heard that the coils go bad....but I assumed that there would be inadequate spark or no spark at all at the plugs..is that correct? Look forward to your reply and have a great day!

All,

The gaps in the intake tappets was .010 in the Avery R with the same engine. The exhaust tappets were .011. That seems like quite a difference from .006 and .008 but would that make it not fire correctly?

I have not had the camshaft out...although over a year I also wondered if I had forgotten about maybe accidentially dropping it down or something. So I took the front cover off and checked the dots on the cam and crank shaft which line up perfectly.

Also, there are a couple "gear heads" at work that know about car engines and went through a similar description of how to determine the compression stroke so I am confident that I have the correct TDC on the correct piston. I tried it yesterday and it fires on all four cylinders with ether added to each cylinder....It seems like it just isn't sucking up the gas through the carburetor. I will check the sequence again and then check for suction at the bottom of the manifold with the carb off I guess.

Thanks for the help and I will be posting again later today after working on it for a while.

Reverse 2 and 3 to see if the distrib is wired backwards. This is essentially reversing all wires starting at No 1, but if you look at it you would see that the only ones that change are 2 and 3. As most engines run a 1342 order, it may be that Avery marks their cylinders from the rear.

I am sure that you are checking for spark, but is it 180 out? One way to check this quick is to Rewire with #1 on the #4 distributor terminal, the replace the wires following the firing order around. Then try the 2/3 swap again. If none of this helps, look to the cam/crank gears for proper alignment.

HTH

Let's go Mountaineers,

Aaron

Myrl, It has 1243 directly on the manifold as the firing order.

George, THank you big time for the webiste...Altoona is actually 12 minutes from my house!!!!

Rusty, I have two BF Avery books, the first being a reproduction BF Avery oweners manual and a MMoline parts and maintenace book for the BF Avery A. One book has the engine specs for valve lash to be .006 and .008 and the other has it as .01 and .008. I also have a running BF Avery R with the same engine that I will check with a feeler gauge (should have done that already I guess but figured at least one of the book had to be correct)

2x4, I though of advancing the cog but I moved the distributor in a clockwise motion at 1/4 inch increments ALL the way around to see if I could get it to fire. I did not have any luck but I guess I should put the distributor where I think it should be and try it again.

I think I will go home tonight and check the running Avery and it"s valve clearence with a feeler gauge and see how much different it is from the .006 and .008 in the book. Thanks guys for all of the replies...I will give it a shot and catch up with this posting tom morning.

THANKS AGAIN!

I did the same to a ford 134 a few years back (5 or so). Wouldn't start for crap and worse if cold. Bone but broke and need this thing to run bad (my loader backhoe and I was building a house). Dropped in a new set of rings and crossed my fingers. No go. Turns out the end gap was worse than the old rings. My trick to get it to fire was to put a little oil down each cly. This would hold just enough psi to get it to fire and spin fast enough to run if the engine was warm (no power and stalled out quick). Ended up with a set of over sized rings cut down to the proper end gap by hand, after honing the p1ss out of it to get it some what round. Ran like a new one and only cost me $100. It had a bit of piston slap but ran strong and is still going today.

And I agree the valves sound a bit on the tight side, but I would do whatever the book says (my ford was up at .015).

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