immense distributor confusion

[Kondoge]

hey y'all, my ol 9n with 8n engine finally has fuel issues all fixed up and I'm now moving on to the distributor. my tractor does have a 12 volt conversion (alternator is messed up/only works when it wants to) I charge my battery before I take ol bust out but anyway, I've looked at my distributor (front mount 8n engine) and one side where the bolt goes in is broken, no problem I said. I'd get a new used one with both holes intact and have my papa help me put new points and stuff in it. here is the part where I'm confused, so we replaced the points and stuff in a used front mount pulled off another 8n that did run. we put it on my tractor and it sputtered and popped real slow as the ol boy slowly fired, it never got up to full idle speed and when I tugged at the throttle the ol boy gave a might backfire and stalled. shoot I said I'll just put the old one back on I said. I put the old one back on, hooked the battery back up and vroom fired right up as always but this time more poofing noises from exhaust. my friend tells me the poofing is just a flathead being a flathead, I've heard people call it "popcorn popping?" anyways I'm wondering if I should try to fix the newer one or just put the old ones internals in the new case, however I'd really appreciate it if I could have some help figuring out the poofing noises and the distributor troubles. thanks in advance. (I do also have a video of the poofing noises that I can upload if y'all need it for reference)

 

[Eman85]

Generally alternators don't work when they want to, you might have wiring problems which are compounding your problems. If you want to diagnose poofing noises start with a good compression test.

 

[Kondoge]

it could just be that I have a severely rednecked exhaust with a resonator that's making the racket but I doubt it

 

[Eman85]

Is this the tractor you hammered the bolt in the carburetor?

 

[Non-farmer]

one wire or three wire alternator? my one wire just works, all the time. do u have the proper pulley and belt on it? they need to be 5/8", not half inch, and the belt needs to be tight. the only thing i can think of, outside of the alternator itself, to cause intermittent function is the wire from the alternator to the battery, wherever the far end may be attached. where is that on yours? plenty of places that sell alternators can test them for you free of charge. call around, find one, and take yours in for a checkup.

Ns are well known for eating a hole to the outside world behind the number 4 outlet, at the back of the manifold above where the exhaust pipe attaches. But to me, that sound is not a poof, it's more of a click or tick. Something to look at, it's a free and easy check.

 

[Jim L WA]

I have two tractors with alternators. One of them starts charging right away the other one wants to be revved up quite a bit before it cuts in.
As for your poofing noises, a compression check is definitely in order. Remember this tractor ran with a lean fuel mixture before you found the missing bolt. You may have valves burned or not sealing all the time. Not all all flatheads make those noises. I've seen them sound like a Swiss watch, where it seemed like all you heard was the fan whirling. This wasn't a tractor though.

 

[Kondoge]

three wire alternator yes same hammered bolt tractor (my bolt works ok, it gave it one heck of a lot more power) I'm not muchly worried about the alternator as we've already planned a replacement and I'll check the wiring over tonight too but I do need to get the distributors in order though as that seems to be not letting the tractor go full power

 

[Non-farmer]

for your immense distributor, here's an immense distributor post

RIP Bruce.

 

[will-max dairy]

Just as a gauge for how much time you want to spend...

Some parts for these old N tractors are rare, and only available from our host site here... or by swapping back and forth...

Some, like distributors are being made new by aftermarket manufacturers in China.

As with all new stuff from overseas... your mileage may vary. Myself, I put one of these distributors on our Ford 2N; and it hasn't given me a lick of trouble for a couple of years now. Others say that they installed them on their tractor, and it summoned demons from ancient Mesopotamia into their engine.

But... anyway... there are choices.

(also, full disclosure... that same 2N that I was talking about... we've had it for 10 years now... back then... 10 years ago... it made poofing, popping and other noises and sometimes didn't like the throttle to be pulled, or to go up hills... and yeah... it was just a 72 year old flathead being a 72 year old flathead... I tried rebuilding the carb, futzing with the distributor... everything... it never quite ran right... a compression test showed that the valves were leaking like sieves... we did an in-frame rebuild on it somewhere around 8 years ago... and it sounds like a sewing machine now, as an 82 year old flathead... there are some problems that you may have to live with, if all you do is skirt around the engine and swap carbs and distributors... it was long after we solved the internal engine problems that I did the aforementioned distributor swap, mostly as a maintenance thing, the new one cost about the same as the internals for a tune up)

 

[will-max dairy]

for your immense distributor, here's an immense distributor post

RIP Bruce.

I didn't realize this. A great resource has been lost from the N community! RIP.

 

[Non-farmer]

Others say that they installed them on their tractor, and it summoned demons from ancient Mesopotamia into their engine.

so THAT'S where they come from. Does anyone make a demon detector?

 

[Kondoge]

thanks everyone for the help I will do the tests that I can when I get home tonight I'll tell y'all how it goes. so far last night here's how it went, I swapped the entire assembly of the old distributor into a new body and accidentally dropped my 12v coil in the process (oops) and it no longer works, so I used a 6v coil that came with the new (used) distributor and the tractor wouldn't start. I decided to see if it would work with the old body for laughs, that was a pain to get it back on the tractor but it did work... I am sure the tractor may be possessed (however this is nothing compared to my John Deere mower, that thing is actually possessed I've tested it). but anyway why the ol 9n refuses to work with anything new on the distributor besides the coil I'll never know, we have also redone all the wire terminals and made darn sure there are no shorts but I'll check again tonight for sure.

 

[will-max dairy]

thanks everyone for the help I will do the tests that I can when I get home tonight I'll tell y'all how it goes. so far last night here's how it went, I swapped the entire assembly of the old distributor into a new body and accidentally dropped my 12v coil in the process (oops) and it no longer works, so I used a 6v coil that came with the new (used) distributor and the tractor wouldn't start. I decided to see if it would work with the old body for laughs, that was a pain to get it back on the tractor but it did work... I am sure the tractor may be possessed (however this is nothing compared to my John Deere mower, that thing is actually possessed I've tested it). but anyway why the ol 9n refuses to work with anything new on the distributor besides the coil I'll never know, we have also redone all the wire terminals and made darn sure there are no shorts but I'll check again tonight for sure.

Sometimes, the little tab or the spring (both circled in red) on the coil don't mate up with their respective contacts on the distributor. All it takes is a little bit of misalignment, or a little bunching of the gasket between the distributor and coil...

They might be making contact with one distributor body and not the other.

 

[will-max dairy]

thanks everyone for the help I will do the tests that I can when I get home tonight I'll tell y'all how it goes. so far last night here's how it went, I swapped the entire assembly of the old distributor into a new body and accidentally dropped my 12v coil in the process (oops) and it no longer works, so I used a 6v coil that came with the new (used) distributor and the tractor wouldn't start. I decided to see if it would work with the old body for laughs, that was a pain to get it back on the tractor but it did work... I am sure the tractor may be possessed (however this is nothing compared to my John Deere mower, that thing is actually possessed I've tested it). but anyway why the ol 9n refuses to work with anything new on the distributor besides the coil I'll never know, we have also redone all the wire terminals and made darn sure there are no shorts but I'll check again tonight for sure.

and...all lawnmowers are possessed...

 

[Non-farmer]

and...all lawnmowers are possessed...

Damn those Mesopotamians!

(I hope you're wrong about that tho. At the recommendation of a friend who works for a school district and does a LOT of mowing, I recently bought a Scag ZTR. If that thing's possessed, I WILL be angry. It actually might be - it tried to cut off my right leg the first time I used it.)

Nah, who am I kidding? Driver incompetence and a complete lack of experience with that style of steering was to blame. Thankfully, my $14 Walmart jeans saved the day

 

[Kondoge]

nah mines definitely possessed the reason being is, if i mow with another tractor it wont run good until the next day or if i slam the hood, or pull the lawn sweep it wont run good either.

 

[Kondoge]

update as of tonight, tests went well with wiring apart from coil wire, tractor needs 12v coil already on getting one from the parts guy as we call him, alternator tested as bad brushes that can start working occasionally then stop working, and coil wire was shorting to the battery platform so we fixed that, i'll probably have ol' buster (9n) running in no time. (the name came from me calling the tractor buster when upset) also incase ya'll were wondering, the possessed john deere in question is a 1990 John Deere 180