Allis WD Won't Run

[jdschwass]

Heyall, I just bought a '52 WD as parts for my my great-grandfathers, now my Dad's tractor, and once I got looking at it, I think I want to fix the old girl up. There are
some issues for sure, but also some nice parts on it. Right now I am just trying to get it running before I put any real money or time into it. I have worked on a lot
of tractors and machines, but this is getting on 5 days now without success.

So far, I have an excellent spark. Compression is low, but it's low across the board, and has been sitting for a long time based on what I'm seeing. I suspect it will
improve.
I have it cranking on 12 volts. I cleaned the carb but 3 times over, cut new gaskets, and soaked it for a day in lacquer thinner. Blew it out with compressed air and
clean holes with wire.
The bowl fills with fuel, and is free flowing from an auxiliary gas can.

I put my hand over the carb to choke it, and it will fire instantly, run for 1-3 seconds, but won't keep going. I can do this over and over but won't catch. I am still
leaning towards carb issue, because I don't get a flood of gas out of the carb when I stop cranking like I do with my 8Ns (same Marvel carbs). But it's as clean as can
be as far as I can tell. I am tempted to install my known good 8N carb just to see what happens.

I also checked the timing and set the point gap. (not a magneto ignition). The timing was close enough, point gap a few thou off, but not enough to matter.

I don't know if I need to investigate a manifold leak (not drawing fuel up?), or perhaps take apart the distributor drive (timing shifting around?) ... or maybe I am
missing something entirely during carb cleaning.

I'd appreciate a second opinion... excited to have my first Allis up and running.

Thanks!

 

[old]

Point gap should be 0.025. But does sound like a carb problem. Pull the carb drain plug and make sure you get a steady flow of gas tat will fill A pint jar in less then 3 minutes. Also if your hand doesn't get covered with gas when you hold your hand over the air intake you for sure have a carb problem unless yo0u have poor suction at the intake. Filling the cylinders with ATF and letting it sit a few days will probably help compression

 

[jdschwass]

Thanks for the advice. I set the points to 20 thou based on another recommendation.

I have tried opening up the bowl drain on the carb and letting it drain, but I haven't let it flow long enough to really test the flow rate... I will try that tomorrow for sure. But there is nothing between the aux tank and the carb, so it should be flowing as fast as the needle valve allows.

Poor suction is my concern... though there is no evidence of leakage, and the bolts are tight. Hopefully not that, but it's hard to know when to just suck it up and pull the manifold.

 

[old]

Suction at the air intake should be enough that you can feel it with you hand. Low compression does lower the suction at the air intake by the way

 

[Nordic]

I have a WD with a well worn engine and have experienced my the same scenario if the tractor has not run for some time. You say you put your hand on the carb while cranking, is this just checking for suction or is the choke not working? Mine certainly has low enough suction which I'm sure contributes to poor starting. My solution is one of three things. One time after having sat out in my forest property for a long time and it wouldn't start, I pulled all the plugs and put a bit of gas in each cylinder. That was an immediate start. If you have ether give a shot in the carb as you're about to crank. My third strategy is to take the heat gun and warm up the carb (I mean nice and warm) when you know for sure that it it is full of gas. This last method really never fails if you have spark. In fact, it easily runs without choke after starting. Somehow, it seems to me that in the worn condition that my engine is in, after sitting for about 10 days to 2 weeks the seal between piston rings to liners fades. A cold start within that time window seems to always be successful.

 

[jdschwass]

I am definitely feeling suction at the intake when I put my hand on it. I'd say it's fine, but I am at the point of trying to rule out everything. I pulled the carb off, again, just looking for anything that could be the culprit. I have it soaking now (again), and planning to give it a final inspection tomorrow. Something doesn't seem right with the carb. I agree that there should be a flood of fuel when choking by hand. I will post back once I get through the next troubleshooting session.
Thanks for the help.

 

[old]

When you clean a carb you need to soak them then use carb cleaner spray to spray them out and then use a piece of wire or as I do a torch tip cleaning tool to poke out the passageways and repeat the 2 threw 4th step 3 or 4 time at the very least

 

[DrAllis]

Spark plug gap of .025" Points are .020".

 

[jvin248]

.

One thing you can try: have fuel hooked to the carb and blow compressed air into the carb intake. Not full 100psi, low about what vacuum you've seen it draw. Does the fuel flow out the updraft pipe? That can tell you the carb passages are cleaned/working. No flames around of course.
.

 

[4wdtom]

Did you clean and follow EVERY passage in the carb and know where it went? My brother had a WC that some insect had blocked the carb vent passage that went from the bowl to the inlet before the choke plate. You couldn't see the mud plug as it was the color and contour of the carb metal. This would prevent it from running. Something like that that you don't see at first could be the problem. Study the carb casting and know where everything leads.

 

[jdschwass]

Thanks all for the great feedback.
I pulled the carb again last night and left it to soak once again. This morning I went through it again with a wire and compressed air. I'm confident I got all of the holes, , but im hoping I might have found the cause. There may have been a partial restriction on the main jet right where the adjustment need goes in. When blowing it out I got a bit of a pop. I'll bolt the carb back up after work and cross my fingers. I'll let you know how I make out.
Thanks!

 

[jdschwass]

Alright then... good news! It worked!
Put the carb back on this afternoon and she fired right up with the regular choke (no hand choke). I played around with the mixture a bit but something is still not right.
It sounds pretty good with the choke on full, but push it in and it starts to bark. All the way in and it spits out sparks and backfires. So it looks like there is still some restriction in the carb, even with the mixture screw turned right out I still can't get it to run rich.
Also messed with timing a bit, but made no real difference.

With the choke on I was able to drive it out of the barn and over to the shop to park it. Confident enough now to start fixing it up. Thanks a lot for all the support. I'm sure I will have another question or two before the end of this project. Thankful for this valuable resource.

Cheers.