Problem in the Distributor.

[Keith Williams]

Ford tractor friends,
I went to pull my 1964 4000 Gas out of it's winter napping place and it would not start.
Here is the story of what I found.
Engine would turn over but would not start. I had started it several times this winter, but it would not fire this time.
No spark at plugs. I pulled the cap, dust cover and ran a piece of paper thru the points (this has helped in the past).
Still no spark. I manually rotated engine until points were closed and manually opened them, no spark. Never had that before.
I came home and read and thought, went back to farm with the meter. (This tractor has been 12 volts for almost 40 years)
With points OPEN I read 12.6 at battery, around 8 volts on + side of coil, around 6 Volts on - of coil, same on side of distributor.
Inside distributor was all wacked out! The points had a low voltage reading and even the plate where the points mount had like .3 volt reading.

Long story but the problem I found was a broken insulator on the bolt thru the distributor case on the inside. I had a short to the distributor case.
I put a piece of plastic container on the bolt head and that solved the problem. I had never had the distributor that far apart before.

I just saw a post about a Jubilee not starting and that prompted me to write this up.

I have seen several posts asking what the voltage reading should be and I wanted to post what readings I had in a NO START Situation. Thinking this could help someone if they saw similar readings.

Keith Williams

 

[old]

Ford tractor friends,
I went to pull my 1964 4000 Gas out of it's winter napping place and it would not start.
Here is the story of what I found.
Engine would turn over but would not start. I had started it several times this winter, but it would not fire this time.
No spark at plugs. I pulled the cap, dust cover and ran a piece of paper thru the points (this has helped in the past).
Still no spark. I manually rotated engine until points were closed and manually opened them, no spark. Never had that before.
I came home and read and thought, went back to farm with the meter. (This tractor has been 12 volts for almost 40 years)
With points OPEN I read 12.6 at battery, around 8 volts on + side of coil, around 6 Volts on - of coil, same on side of distributor.
Inside distributor was all wacked out! The points had a low voltage reading and even the plate where the points mount had like .3 volt reading.

Long story but the problem I found was a broken insulator on the bolt thru the distributor case on the inside. I had a short to the distributor case.
I put a piece of plastic container on the bolt head and that solved the problem. I had never had the distributor that far apart before.

I just saw a post about a Jubilee not starting and that prompted me to write this up.

I have seen several posts asking what the voltage reading should be and I wanted to post what readings I had in a NO START Situation. Thinking this could help someone if they saw similar readings.

Keith Williams

No spark at the points say there needing a better cleaning or replaced simple as that

 

[Jim.ME]

No spark at the points say there needing a better cleaning or replaced simple as that

old,

Read his entire post. He posted he had cleaned the points. Further on he posted: "Long story but the problem I found was a broken insulator on the bolt thru the distributor case on the inside. I had a short to the distributor case. I put a piece of plastic container on the bolt head and that solved the problem."

He was passing on what his problem was found to be so others would see it was another thing to check, when they had a "No Start" issue.

 

[Jim.ME]

Ford tractor friends,
I went to pull my 1964 4000 Gas out of it's winter napping place and it would not start.
Here is the story of what I found.
Engine would turn over but would not start. I had started it several times this winter, but it would not fire this time.
No spark at plugs. I pulled the cap, dust cover and ran a piece of paper thru the points (this has helped in the past).
Still no spark. I manually rotated engine until points were closed and manually opened them, no spark. Never had that before.
I came home and read and thought, went back to farm with the meter. (This tractor has been 12 volts for almost 40 years)
With points OPEN I read 12.6 at battery, around 8 volts on + side of coil, around 6 Volts on - of coil, same on side of distributor.
Inside distributor was all wacked out! The points had a low voltage reading and even the plate where the points mount had like .3 volt reading.

Long story but the problem I found was a broken insulator on the bolt thru the distributor case on the inside. I had a short to the distributor case.
I put a piece of plastic container on the bolt head and that solved the problem. I had never had the distributor that far apart before.

I just saw a post about a Jubilee not starting and that prompted me to write this up.

I have seen several posts asking what the voltage reading should be and I wanted to post what readings I had in a NO START Situation. Thinking this could help someone if they saw similar readings.

Keith Williams

Good info to pass on, thank you.

 

[Jim L WA]

Yes, great write up Keith. That's how to trouble shoot.