Farmall super a

[grandpa Love]

Been 3 years since it was running. I didn't remove the magneto and thank you for the advice

Easy easy easy. Move you spark plug wires one spot clockwise on the cap,still won't start? Move them one more spot clockwise,now you are 180° out or it will fire right up. It's really easy to time one 189° out. The manual isn't really clear on the procedure. It happens to the best of us. Could have been done years ago,you didn't know and when you swapped plug wires you put them in the " correct" spots..... making it " wrong. Just checking,you know #1 spark plug is closest to the radiator?

 

[Dave BN]

Jojo, my suspicion is your battling something simple here. If you tell us where you are located perhaps one of us is close enough to come over and assist you. Otherwise let's go back to the basics. You need spark at the correct time, good fuel, compression AND AIR. I don't see where you said if you have a magneto or battery ignition. A picture of that area would be a big help. If you don't have a vertical type distributor then looking from the operator position number one spark plug wire is at about the 1 o'clock position and is probably marked as such on the distributor cap. Then clockwise from number 1 should be 3, 4, 2 sparkplug wires. There should be a notch in the distributor cap that fits on a tab on the body of the distributor or magneto. If the cap is on wrong then your firing order won't be correct.
If you hold the palm of your hand over the throat of the carburetor while turning the engine over you should feel a strong suction. I would have the air cleaner disconnected while trying to get the engine started.
With all 4 plugs out stick your finger in each spark plug hole while turning the engine over, you should feel a strong pressure pushing your finger out as each cylinder comes up on compression. You will also feel pressure during exhaust stroke but it won't be as strong.
If you sprayed starting fluid in a cylinder and it didn't fire my guess is it's out of time or you have no or very low compression. You should take the rocker cover off and watch the valve movement, that would verify timing also.
Try posting a picture of the ignition parts and the entire tractor.
I'm in West Michigan if that helps. Or you could call me. 231-557-3163.
Dave

 

[Mark-Ia]

If you didn't replace the plugs, get some new ones. Old plugs may show a spark when removed from the engine, but won't fire under compression.

 

[jojo125]

Easy easy easy. Move you spark plug wires one spot clockwise on the cap,still won't start? Move them one more spot clockwise,now you are 180° out or it will fire right up. It's really easy to time one 189° out. The manual isn't really clear on the procedure. It happens to the best of us. Could have been done years ago,you didn't know and when you swapped plug wires you put them in the " correct" spots..... making it " wrong. Just checking,you know #1 spark plug is closest to the radiator?

 

[jojo125]

With cylinder 1 tdc the rotor is sitting at cylinder 4 how do I ajust that to cylinder 1

 

[jojo125]

With cylinder 1 tdc the rotor is sitting at cylinder 4 how do I ajust that to cylinder 1

Also do you have the piston to the top as close as u can before you hear the click

 

[used red MN]

With cylinder 1 tdc the rotor is sitting at cylinder 4 how do I ajust that to cylinder 1

You are just at the TDC of the exhaust stroke of number one cylinder, you did not read or did not understand the second half of my reply 16.
I have a copy and paste on this so here it is again….
When checking the timing of the distributor to the engine hopefully you’re aware of this. On a 4 stroke engine the number 1 piston comes to top dead center twice during those 4 strokes? Once at the top of the compression stroke and again at the top of the exhaust stroke. The 4 strokes are 1) piston down air and fuel drawn in through intake valve INTAKE; 2) piston coming up compressing the fuel and air mix COMPRESSION [one turn of crankshaft has been completed at this point]; 3) the piston moving down under the pressure and heat of the exploded air/fuel mix POWER; 4) the piston moving up pushing exhaust gases out of the open exhaust valve EXHAUST. [Now two turns of the crankshaft have been completed to give the piston 4 strokes down, up, down, up. When the number 1 piston is at TDC of its exhaust stroke the number 4 cylinder is at TDC of its compression stroke. So in other words if you just lined up the timing marks and threw the distributor in you have a 50/50 chance of it being correct. To do it correctly you need to have the #1 spark plug out and feel for compression. When you feel that then continue to turn the crank until the TDC marks line up. Then place your distributor in with the rotor pointing to the terminal 1 in the cap for the plug wire of the front cylinder.
End of copied section, that is for a battery distributor engine, a mag is a bit different to compensate for the impulse spring.
You almost have to know there are timing marks on the flywheel to see the TDC timing marks. I suspect the manual wore out provided you shows that.
I think you are not on the correct rotation of the crank and that is why you are seeing the rotor pointing to number 4 plug terminal in the cap. You have to very slowly turn the engine when testing for the pressure out the spark plug hole. The pushing starts and is completed in one piston stroke which equals one half turn of the crankshaft.
The is a small possibility that what Grandpa Love has told you happened. Whoever timed the mag previously has it 180 degrees out of time. In that case advance the spark plug wires two terminals ahead clockwise and try to start it. If it starts run it that way it harms nothing. And I would recommend doing this for the time being. Later if you want everything right for the “correct police” you can pull the mag and re-time it in the proper position. Just FYI advancing two terminals on the plug wires means starting the clockwise firing order at the terminal 180 degrees from the one that is marked with a number 1 if the cap has that.

 

[crsutton81]

Also do you have the piston to the top as close as u can before you hear the click

I'm going to assume that you have a battery ignition distributor system on your Super A like pictured, and not a magneto, although I don't see why one couldn't be installed if so desired in place of a regular distributor. A battery distributor will never have an audible click. The cap terminal that my finger is pointing at is terminal #1 for cylinder number 1, which is closest to the radiator as mentioned before. I suspect that it's very possible during the cap replacement that the plug wires were unintentionally plugged back into the wrong terminals. As stated before in prior post,the correct firing order is 1-3-4-2 with the rotor button turning in a clockwise rotation when viewed from the drivers seat. The plug wires need to correspond to the same firing order. An easy way to verify that the engine is timed correctly is to remove the spark plug in cylinder #1 and hold a finger in the plug hole while slowly spinning the engine over with the hand crank. Once significant air pressure is felt, stop and with a light, start looking into the cylinder and watch the piston move to the upmost movement while turning the engine over with the hand crank or fan blades. Once it's at the very most movement upwards, this will be top dead center (TDC). There are more sophisticated ways to get to this point, but this has always worked for me. Just be sure there is no way it could start while doing so. Once TDC has been achieved, pop the distributor cap off and see if the rotor button is pointing at tower #1 or REALLY close to it. If it's way off from being in the correct location, the distributor will need to be withdrawn from the drive housing by removing the 2 half inch wrench headed bolts that hold the half clamps down around the barrel of the distributor shaft stem. Once removed from the housing, turn the gear and shaft in the direction that it needs to go for the rotor to align with cap tower #1. While re-installing the complete distributor back into the tractor, be sure to try to keep the tower placement oriented at about the 1 o'clock position and not turn the shaft. It may be necessary to rotate the distributor a little both ways to find the best timing position ( aka....where it runs the smoothest) before locking it back down with the hold down bolts and clamps upon start up. Also to note....assuming it this distributor has points, they need to be gapped at .020 while on the high point of being open. If the distributor has to be removed from the tractor, this would be an excellent time to check on they're condition. Sorry for being long winded, but hope this helps.

 

[used red MN]

View attachment 115452
I'm going to assume that you have a battery ignition distributor system on your Super A like pictured, and not a magneto, although I don't see why one couldn't be installed if so desired in place of a regular distributor. A battery distributor will never have an audible click. The cap terminal that my finger is pointing at is terminal #1 for cylinder number 1, which is closest to the radiator as mentioned before. I suspect that it's very possible during the cap replacement that the plug wires were unintentionally plugged back into the wrong terminals. As stated before in prior post,the correct firing order is 1-3-4-2 with the rotor button turning in a clockwise rotation when viewed from the drivers seat. The plug wires need to correspond to the same firing order. An easy way to verify that the engine is timed correctly is to remove the spark plug in cylinder #1 and hold a finger in the plug hole while slowly spinning the engine over with the hand crank. Once significant air pressure is felt, stop and with a light, start looking into the cylinder and watch the piston move to the upmost movement while turning the engine over with the hand crank or fan blades. Once it's at the very most movement upwards, this will be top dead center (TDC). There are more sophisticated ways to get to this point, but this has always worked for me. Just be sure there is no way it could start while doing so. Once TDC has been achieved, pop the distributor cap off and see if the rotor button is pointing at tower #1 or REALLY close to it. If it's way off from being in the correct location, the distributor will need to be withdrawn from the drive housing by removing the 2 half inch wrench headed bolts that hold the half clamps down around the barrel of the distributor shaft stem. Once removed from the housing, turn the gear and shaft in the direction that it needs to go for the rotor to align with cap tower #1. While re-installing the complete distributor back into the tractor, be sure to try to keep the tower placement oriented at about the 1 o'clock position and not turn the shaft. It may be necessary to rotate the distributor a little both ways to find the best timing position ( aka....where it runs the smoothest) before locking it back down with the hold down bolts and clamps upon start up. Also to note....assuming it this distributor has points, they need to be gapped at .020 while on the high point of being open. If the distributor has to be removed from the tractor, this would be an excellent time to check on they're condition. Sorry for being long winded, but hope this helps.

He has a magneto, his original post was tacked on the end of a 2014 post on a Super H with a magneto and no spark.
Here is what he said there
“Im working on my grandfather's old farmall super a no spark not even at the points but the magneto had spark so I changed the points and now I have spark coming off them but not spark at the magneto”

 

[grandpa Love]

With cylinder 1 tdc the rotor is sitting at cylinder 4 how do I ajust that to cylinder 1

It's really really simple. Move every plug wire 2 spots on the cap , clockwise. That should make it fire up. Is it technically wrong? Yes? No ? Who cares if it runs. You can pull the magneto and do it right later. Or not, someone else in the past didn't