Starting farmall m

[mseybold]

I know it has already been asked. 1951 Farmall, wont start. Working on spark plugs, no magneto. 1 company sent me 2 different Autolite spark plugs; 3116 and 388, which do I use and what gap. I know nothing about tractors/engines, trying to fix up with my boys and teach them stuff I did not grow up with. Any help is greatly apprectated. Thank you

 

[Charlie M]

Lots of possible reasons why it won't start. You've got to do some trouble shooting to narrow down the problem. Does it crank over OK. Is it 6 volt or been converted to 12 volt. Do you have spark. Has it been running OK and suddenly won't start or has it been sitting for a long time. If you take the plug out of the carb do you get a good flow of gas for a couple of minutes. All this stuff will help to diagnose the problem and prevent you from buying parts due to guess work.

 

[mseybold]

Was running 5 months ago. New carb gasket due to torn one seems like no spark. Dont know how to check but now have to replace resistor. Its 12 volt, has good gas flow. Was not running well, was told it was missing. Im still learning.

 

[Charlie M]

If its 12 volt it probably has a resistor somewhere around the distributor to cut back to 6 volts for the coil. They do go bad - my H and M both had one go bad within the last 12 months. If you have a volt meter its easy to tell. If you have 12 volts in and almost nothing coming out the resistor is bad. If it skips when it runs then thats a new list of things to look for.

 

[Nate V. IA]

Clean the points, then check for spark. Seems like everything I let sit around here needs the points cleaned to run again. I use the dollar bill method.

 

[old]

If it has a distributor pull the center wire out of the cap and hold it about a 1/4 inch from the block. Watch for a blue/white spark that jumps a 1/4 inch or more. No spark when you spin it over with the ignition on says the points are not working and need cleaned or replaced. If you have spark there then do the same test with all 4 plug wires. If no spark then your cap or rotor are bad

 

[khouse6]

john t has an electrical trouble shooting guide , on here somewhere

i will try to find it

 

[khouse6]

http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=farmall&th=5745

johm t trouble shooting guided

 

[mseybold]

It will take me a few days before I can get back to the M, but thanks for all the imput. I will let you know the outcome.