an old guys tractor

[poordumbcuntryboy]

I found this forum a few weeks ago. My old friend of over 45 years ask me if I would come have a look at his dads old tractor. It had not been running for 2 or 3 years and he would like to get it going for him. When I took my first look at it. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. This old tractor is a 1940's Ford 9N. I hadn't seen one in over 30 years, let alone ever worked on one. Now o'l Pete is around 78 yr's old and the sad look on his fase was enough to convince me to give it a try. He told us that a few years ago he had left the ignition key on and it had melted the coil. He put a new coil on, but it still wouldn't start so it just sat there over the years. Pete had the tractor for many years and My buddy Mike was sure we could get the thing going, so we rolled up our sleeves and started in. When Pete heard that I was comming to fix it. He went right out and got a new battery, so that was a good start. We removed the air filter system and carb. cleaned all the wasp nest out, added new oil and then stripped down the carb. Right away I had FORD in my head, so I cleaned up blew everything out. I checked the float level and it was set at 1/4" and that looked pretty good to me. I reassembled everything. I screwed the idle mixture screw all the way in, and turned it back out 4 turns. I screwed the power valve screw all the way in and turned it back out 4 turns as well. We re installed the carb. and turned on the fuel valve. We the plug from the bottom of the bowel and fuel flowed out nicely, so we figured we got that right. Next we pulled the number 1 spark plug and cranked her over to check for spark. There was no spark and the engine cranked over very slow and dragged the battery down in a matter of seconds. We put the battery on charge then started in on that old crab style distributor.
(To be continued)

 

[Anonymous-0]

That should be all it takes to get her agoi'N.

John,PA

 

[Dunk]

[color=blue:3fd592565c]I screwed the idle mixture screw all the way in, and turned it back out 4 turns. I screwed the power valve screw all the way in and turned it back out 4 turns as well. [/color:3fd592565c]

4 turns!??!?!?!?!!?

Dayum, you git a tad carried away don't you?

Might as well just go ahead and remove them.

 

[Dean]

PD:

Try about 1 1/4 turns out on the fuel adjustment and about 1/2 turns on the idle screw.

Obviously, you will need to address the ignition system next.

Dean

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

just learning to post a picture in a comment.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3412/3489505327_5df2e34117.jpg

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Another try!

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Looks like that did it.

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Woo, dayum! If I'da known the locals were hostyel I wouldn't have checked my 1911 colts at the door! I ain't no rocket scientest.

 

[Ed S.]

That's just Dunk. He's like that to most everybody. Means he likes you.

So did you get 'er running? Nice looking tractor!

es

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 23:14:26 04/30/09) Woo, dayum! If I'da known the locals were hostyel I wouldn't have checked my 1911 colts at the door! I ain't no rocket scientest.

Don't take us wrong....

I am now pi$$ed about you having those rear tires, compared to my skim over inner tubes.

I will also do my best to help you any way that I can.

My first post was all in fun.

There are a lot of guys here that know all put together know EVERYTHING about yer tractor, and a lot off them prove it, many times a day.

We like to keep it light hearted, and most have their own idiosynchroncies, and I do drank quite a bit myself...

Hang with us, you are on the BEST DARN 9N, 2N, 8N, tractor board on the Internet.

And we will try our best to answer questions about other things.

You didn't ask for any help in your first post, and I just said what hit me about it.

 

[Dell (WA)]

pdcb.......heres the deal, all engines need fuel, compression, and ignition. Engines that have set for a time loose compression from sticking rings. Squirt about 1-oz (tablespoon) of MMO or ATF down each sparkie hole, and crank the engine (without sparkies) to spread the high-detergent oil around. Do that everyday for 4-days. Then squirt regular engine oil to seal yer rings so you have compression. BTW Ford compression specs: 90psi min (dry), oil seal can up compression +30psi.

The replace yer sparkies with NEW CLEAN AutoLIte 437's (gapped 0.025") don't argue.

As fer yer carb, 1/4" float is ok but 4-turns on yer jet-screws is WRONG. Set yer down-pointing mainjet to 2-turns and LEAVITT!!! Adjust yer side-pointing idlemix to 1/2-turn. Should gitt'cha runnin'. Remember, side-pointing idlemix is BASSACKAWARDS; out for lean, IN for ENRICH. Adjust for fastest idle, NOT SMOOTHEST idle. Set the behind the carb throttle-speed for incredibly sloooooow 400rpms. (ennythang under 500rpms is close) Do that idlemix song'n'dance at least 3-times, always for fastest idle.

You do know that the weird 4-nipple frontmount distributor is a 2-bolt, 15-min job to remove and set the points (0.015") on the kitchen table, don't you??? Just un-clippie yer cap and letter dangle. Yer frontmount distributor is driven by an off-set tang scheme and cannot be installed outta time without breakin' sumptin'. Clamp a dollar bill between the points after adjusting them (0.015") to POLISH the invisible corrosion off'n the points. This is a 6v necessity. Iff'n yer really cheap, tear a strip of heavy brown paper grocery sack to polish the points.

You do know the 9N came from the factory, 6-volts positive ground, don't you???

The ONLY way to check fer sparkies is with a calibrated sparkie tester made outta enny old sparkie by bending the side electrode for a full 3/16" gap. Clamp yer metal shell to convenient bracket, and plug enny sparkie wire to top. With ignition switch ON, crank yer starter motor in neutral and watch yer calibrated tester for sparkies. Are they HOT blue-snott snappin' sparkies or wimpy yellowish-orangish poor excuses??? Or no sparkies at all???

My eazy starting 6-volt 52-8N sparkies will jump a full 3/8" gap and idles at 435rpms. It can be done ......Dell, yer self-appointed sparkie-meister

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

So, we pulled the coil, distributor cap and distridutor. The points had no gap at all, so I assumed I had found the problem. I set the points at .018. Inspected the rest of the working parts, and put it back togather. when we turned it over. It still turned very slow and there still was no spark to the plugs! I became suspicous of the resester and did a quick bypass (hotwire)but still had no spark and the battery drained very fast. I thought maybe the starter was pulling all the power, so we pulled the starter and stripped it down. This starter was so old, I was suprised it even could turn the engine. I tested the resistor and it was dead. A quick trip to our local tractor parts store and grabbed a new starter and balis resister. Installed them and turned it over. She turned over very well, without draining the battery, but still no spark!
(to be continued)

 

[Paul in MN]

PD,

Welcome to the N site. I already like your humor and willingness to help others. That is a lot of what we do here.

Don't be scared off by Dunk, he really is a good guy, but likes to wrap himself in some rough clothes. We have many highly experienced N people here, but many have a "screen personality" that they enjoy living up to. It is part of our never ending (sick??) humor. Kind of like the small town cafe'. But we all come back for more.

If you are just beginning with N tractors, a real useful piece of written info is Bruce's "50 tips" (which I wish I could hot link for you now, but I can't find it with these tired eyes). Bruce was new to N's at one time and took the time to distill (Dunk likes that word!) many of our discussions and tips. Most of those tips came right from this site, and a few from the school of hard knocks (dang tuition is pretty high there!).

Hey, you'll fit right in!

Paul in MN

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Haha! i was pretty sure checking the guns was the right thing to do, but I like to joke a little! when the story is done. You all will see why I'm posting it.

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 23:48:04 04/30/09) So, we pulled the coil, distributor cap and distridutor. The points had no gap at all, so I assumed I had found the problem. I set the points at .018. Inspected the rest of the working parts, and put it back togather. when we turned it over. It still turned very slow and there still was no spark to the plugs! I became suspicous of the resester and did a quick bypass (hotwire)but still had no spark and the battery drained very fast. I thought maybe the starter was pulling all the power, so we pulled the starter and stripped it down. This starter was so old, I was suprised it even could turn the engine. I tested the resistor and it was dead. A quick trip to our local tractor parts store and grabbed a new starter and balis resister. Installed them and turned it over. She turned over very well, without draining the battery, but still no spark!
(to be continued)

The turning very slow, [b:360e7c77ae]could [/b:360e7c77ae]be a worn out starter problem.

Or it could mean that a lot of connections need cleaning.

Even where the starter mounts to the tractor, that is where it gets it ground.

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 23:58:31 04/30/09) Haha! i was pretty sure checking the guns was the right thing to do, but I like to joke a little! when the story is done. You all will see why I'm posting it.

The (to be continued) made me to feel that there was something up yer sleeve to start with.

 

[Ed S.]

I did some work on an 8N for a friend (ended up borrowing the tractor for three years until I finally rebuilt mine, but that's a whole 'nuther story), and the tractor had been sitting out in the weather for a couple years after he left the ignition key on and melted the coil.

The wiring had a lot of mice-chewed and weather-checked gaps in the insulation, and as a temporary fix, I used electrical tape to re-insulate and keep the electrons and smoke from leaking out. Then checked [i:7f65e76c74]every single connection[/i:7f65e76c74] for "clean, bright and tight."

You might check those two things, and then get out your voltmeter and start tracing voltage, starting at the coil. If ya' got nothing at the coil with the switch on (roll the engine over by hand to make the points open and close), just move upstream until you hit volts, and you will have somewhat isolated your problem (or one of them). The number of volts at certain spots in the flow makes a difference, but I don't have that info handy at the moment. Search for the 50 Tips and it may be covered there.

Also note there are a couple places in the front-mount distributor where shorts can happen (took me three tries to get mine lined up right after my rebuild). You may also need to slightly stretch the pigtail on the bottom of the new coil for it to make good contact.

And, as long as that puppy's been sitting, it couldn't hurt to repolarize the generator (again, don't have the specifics handy, but a site search will turn it up numerous times).

One more random thought - if you pulled the starter, make sure it is grounded well to the tranny casing (where it mates up) - no paint, oil or grease there.

es

 

[ford 5600]

old fords are always able to handle what ever you throw at them. really nice looking tractor...

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Sorry about making you guys wait for more of the story. I've been busy getting my car ready for a show tonight, and now it's pooring down rain so I'm not going!
Just to let you all know why I used the .018 for the point gap. I've tuned a lot of model A's and that's the closest engine to the 9N I have seen. I also set the plug gaps to .040. Which they were already at about that. So we had a good turning starter, and compression test showed all 4 cylinders at 85 to 90 psi. The unfortunate thing was getting the No. 4 plug wire chewed up by the fan belt while doing the compression test. Threading the new plug wires sucked almost as bad as trying to removing the old ones with out blowing all the crap out of the tube first. While getting the new plug wires. I had the coil tested at the local Ford tractor service department. It had an open circuit, so we got a new one. Installed the new plug wires and coil. cranked her over and got some pop and missfire, but no start. It was getting late and I had some stuff to do, so we called it a day. I was meeting some friends to do some bycycle down hill practice for a local event. I dislocated my shoulder, and was totaly screwed. I was having a hard time sleeping that night because of the shoulder and thinking about why this engine wouldn't run. I decided to see if I could find any timing and fuel system info on the internet. Guess what? I found this forum! I read till about 4am and printed out the timing procedures and carburetor instructions. I was unable to drive the next day and Mrs. poordumb had to go to work, so I gave Mike a call and had him pull the distrtributor and bring it over. When he got here he told me that o'l Pete said that he had bought that distributor new when the tractor quit running. Sure enough the thing was off by a good 1/4". I reset the points to .015 and cleaned them with a brand new doller, just as I had read here on the forum. Now Mike don't read much, so I gave him instructions on setting up the carburetor and resetting the plug gaps to .025. 1-1/2 hour later I got a call from him. He was very excited! he said that it started for a few seconds and died, but won't restart. I had him go throught each step one at a time, and sure enough. He had screwed the power screw in the top of the carb all the way in, but failed to back it out any. I had him back it out 1-1/2 turns. He cranked the engine over about 1-1/2 times and it fired right up! I walked him through a couple of adjustment on the carb. and she runs as smooth as a MPD's but! So we really gotta tell all you guys thanks, and the old man hardly gets off the thing now.

 

[jon]

and the old man hardly gets off the thing now.

Good to hear a success story like that!
Take care of older folk. They deserve it for puttin" up with us.

 

[Dunk]

I have really enjoyed the whole topic!!!

But I just love success stories.

We are in a severe TS warning right now.

It's getting noisy.

The county north of me just had two or three funnels spotted on the ground.

I hope GA Dave is alright.

 

[Ed S.]

Great end to the story - glad you stuck with it!

What kind of car were you showing? Pics?

es

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Just wanted to post another picture of the 9N. Notice that the front rims have been modified to take standard tires. The storie is that during WWII. They couldn't get tires for it, so they modified them to fit what they could get.

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

I was going to show my Formula 400. We have a 55 T-Bird too, but I'm rewiring it and changing the wipers to electric.

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

Yes, I agree! I'm in my 50's now and my daughters always tell me they will use my treatment of our parents as an example for when I get that old. Little turds meen it too!

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 00:08:29 05/02/09) I was going to show my Formula 400. We have a 55 T-Bird too, but I'm rewiring it and changing the wipers to electric.

We need a little touch up to look as nice as yours...........but we don't sweat the rain!

 

[Sean (TX)]

(quoted from post at 00:52:50 05/02/09)

(quoted from post at 00:08:29 05/02/09) I was going to show my Formula 400. We have a 55 T-Bird too, but I'm rewiring it and changing the wipers to electric.

We need a little touch up to look as nice as yours...........but we don't sweat the rain!

LMAO...Target practice?

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

What a shame!!!! at least the the Texan got some target practice. Looks like he needed it! Anyone think we could get the TV working? I'm sure the goats would like to watch some old Barney Miller. The snow flake rims on that car are worth a bit of money you know!

 

[6869704x4]

(quoted from post at 19:47:46 05/01/09) and the old man hardly gets off the thing now.

Like a new bride. :twisted:

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

You said it! "get on her and stay on her!"

 

[Dunk]

Just a thought.....

Marriage changes passion.
Suddenly you're in bed with a relative.

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

That's a pretty big issue here in California.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 10:08:04 05/02/09) What a shame!!!! at least the the Texan got some target practice. Looks like he needed it! Anyone think we could get the TV working? I'm sure the goats would like to watch some old Barney Miller. The snow flake rims on that car are worth a bit of money you know!

Oxy/acet bag launched tv & deck lid about 50 yards...no mo watching tv.

We did save this one though.......does that count?

 

[poordumbcuntryboy]

saved the citation or the washmachine? You should have got some pictures of the launch!

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 14:32:09 05/02/09) saved the citation or the washmachine? You should have got some pictures of the launch!

ey! it's Vette!
Chevette, that is. :roll: