1952 John Deere B

[Spitfiremk14]

Hi,

We have a 1952 JD B. It was a late model with a water pump and originaly came with the Wico ditributor.

We cant get it to run at all. Me and my father are stumped. This tractor was bought new by my great Grandfather, and has actualy only had about 15 years of farming on it. It has been in pretty much runing condition untill about 5-10 years ago.

Here is the list of things we have just completed:

New rebuilt delco distributor (not the wico anymore) with all new ignition parts

rebuilt head/valves

new rings

rebiult carburator that we know works as we had it on another tractor

We have spark and fuel. We have checked teh timing several times. The last time this was running my father was giving my nephews a tractor ride and somthing "went". It started running rough and now it wount start at all, even after we have gone through every posibility we can think of. The only thing we have not touched is the camshaft/valve timing. We have done a rough test by putting our thumb in the spark plug hole to see if the compression and intake seem apropriate and they do. I can't imagine that it would have slipped anyway, but I could be wrong.

It does not have a new wiring harness, but the existing one is in very good shape and tight/clean. we have the hood off at the moment so we can see everything. We are using a 1 galon gas tank from a tiller to try things out with.


Any ideas???

 

[kub6040]

Pull it or hook a belt to it form another tractor , if it
still won't start , you have something out of whack.

 

[Spitfiremk14]

We did that. And I agree with you somthing may be out of whack. But What????

 

[RandyB(MI)]

you say you are getting spark and fuel correct? then you should be getting at least a few "bangs". If you are not getting "bangs" then you are NOT getting fuel and spark,period,at least not in the cylinder. Tell us more of what it actually does when rolling.

 

[Spitfiremk14]

(quoted from post at 13:50:02 06/01/16) you say you are getting spark and fuel correct? then you should be getting at least a few "bangs". If you are not getting "bangs" then you are NOT getting fuel and spark,period,at least not in the cylinder. Tell us more of what it actually does when rolling.

If we pull it we somtimes get a puff of smoke. We have fuel because the plugs get damp and smell of gas. If you take the plug out and ground it on the side of the tractor the plug sparks. If I leave the plug in and hold the lead near it it will jump across about a 1/4 inch gap. Put it all back together and turn it over with the battery and not a thing, not even smoke.

 

[PopinJohn]

Have you ruled out the air cleaner being stopped up with a bird nest or dirt dobbers?
Take loose the pipe from the air cleaner to the carb and try to start.

 

[RandyB(MI)]

Do a compression test on it. That will dispel any crank/cam timing and/ or valve sticking problems. Even an engine 180 out of time will fire and "bang".

 

[bill finn]

Here are some test i would start with. I would hook up a good ground to a test light then touch the probe of the test light to the
dist terminal. Crank engine over, you should see the test light come on then off(not dim). If you are not sure, leave ignition
switch on then turn the flywheel until light goes off, then on. If light is not consistent, you must clean your points. Also with
a digital voltmeter test voltage at dist terminal while cranking and make sure dist is grounded. Did you set your valves on the
correct stroke? did you use the correct timing marks when aligning flywheel for valve adjustment? do you have an intake leak? to
check tape muffler off then tape shop vac to carb and apply presure to the intake with the vac, spray soap around all the intake
connections. Is the dist installed correctly? run a cylinder up on compression stroke TDC and pull the dist cap, where is the
rotor pointing? is it already past the dist cap post for that cylinder? pull the plugs and turn it over, are the cylinders full of
gas(carefull not to spark the gas, better to disable coil for this test) could the choke be stuck shut?
good luck, let us know what you find

 

[Jo Bird]

You do realize the timing marks for the magneto are different than those for the distributor set up ..

 

[Spitfiremk14]

(quoted from post at 05:16:13 06/02/16) You do realize the timing marks for the magneto are different than those for the distributor set up ..

This tractor came from the factory with a distributor.

 

[Spitfiremk14]

Thanks for the ideas. I think we have done most of those things but I will double check them this weekend.

 

[Spitfiremk14]

Well... I dont know what to say. We got "new" new spark plugs and if fired right up. still some stuff to work out so that it runs smooth, but 100% better than before.