TEA20 help!!!

[BonedocDave]

Longtime site lurker and rabid Ferguson fan - I have a "52 TEA20 that has performed beautifully for the last 5 years at my hobby farm. Recently changed plugs, points etc and found crack in coil so bought a new one (she is a 12v conversion). After all this she started running poorly and would flood with fuel draining out of carb - asked local tractor shop and they said to clean carb- did so with no improvement. They then said I needed a new carb so got one of the new Zenith units - no better. Will run initially then get harsh and misfire with black exhaust and plugs will foul with soot - now told the head gasket is blown or head may be cracked!! HELP!!

 

[Jerry/MT]

It"s best to do some diagnostics to find the root cause of the problem before throwing parts at it. Replacement carbs are expensive and it didn"t solve your stated problem.

Sooty plugs indicate that mixture is too rich. Lean it out some.

What"s your spark look like? If you haven"t checked the points in 5 years, give them a good look and make sure they are gapped correctly. They can corrode, pit, burn, get oily, or just wear and give you weak spark. Provided you used a 3.2 ohm coil on your 12v system, changing out a coil should not cause the problems you are seeing.

 

[Stovepipe]

(quoted from post at 07:26:43 07/02/12) Longtime site lurker and rabid Ferguson fan - I have a "52 TEA20 that has performed beautifully for the last 5 years at my hobby farm. Recently changed plugs, points etc and found crack in coil so bought a new one (she is a 12v conversion). After all this she started running poorly and would flood with fuel draining out of carb - asked local tractor shop and they said to clean carb- did so with no improvement. They then said I needed a new carb so got one of the new Zenith units - no better. Will run initially then get harsh and misfire with black exhaust and plugs will foul with soot - now told the head gasket is blown or head may be cracked!! HELP!!

Look to the things you just changed. There's something not right, the devil is in the details...

 

[Joe TO Fan]

I've seen so many cases of what "I just replaced 'whatever' and now it runs really bad". Almost every time it's something you just replaced. My leading candidate would be the points. But plugs would be next. Go back and check everything you just swapped out real close. Just because the box said it was new, doesn't mean it will work.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[49/20/53/30]

I toss a second vote in for Joe TO Fan. I had experienced a similar issue on my TO30. I thought at first it was a fuel issue and then settled on the points. It would lope and miss like it was starving for fuel. I tried to replace them with a new set. They never fired at all. The next set took care of the issue.

 

[GeoffM]

I have had similar problems at different times, once it was the points and when replaced all was fine, then some time later the condenser failed and all went back to normal when a new one was fitted and the months rolled on and last time it was the rotor button - all small items but caused big problems including unburnt fuel seeping out from th carb

 

[jon corbett]

put your old plugs back in,and.....

 

[Anonymous-0]

Look at the post of 19/6/12 re a Tea 20. see that you have those figures and settings in yours as quoted by John [UK].. also is your coil the correct one.some may need a resistor.

 

[John(UK)]

Someone is taking you for a ride here. They don"t know what it is and they are just telling you things to get you out of the door or they want you to let them repair it. From what they have said, I would not let them put oil on my barrow wheel. It will not be a conversion if it is a 1952 tractor, they were all 12 volt from June 1951. Fitting a new coil would not cause the carburettor to start leaking. The Carb will most likely be dirt in the Needle Valve above the Float(it shuts off the fuel when the Carb is full) If you have the latest Zenith Carburettor, what have you set it too? It should be 1 turn open on both the Main Jet and the Air Screw. that should allow it to run OK and let it get hot BUT for heavy work you need to open the main Jet to 1-1/4 turns open (turn CCW) No adjustment necessary to Air Screw. Don"t let anyone tell you any different adjustments to these, there are 3 different main jets on these carbs you see.
Run the Engine at these settings and let it get hot....about 20 Min"s or so and then see what it is running like normally after that.
Have you got the correct plugs fitted, the factory recommends Champion L86C for this engine set to .030", the Points should be set to .015" if it is a 12 volt tractor. These settings are important for it to run correctly. Is the Carb still leaking? that would cause black plugs and poor running...John(UK)[email protected]

 

[BonedocDave]

Thanks for all the great responses!! If I analyze all that has happened it really dates to the addition of the new coil when things went sour. It was sold as a universal 12V coil - when cold I get a good spark at the points and plugs BUT after running the fergy starts running poorly, blowing black smoke and the coil gets so hot I can"t touch it - this must be the cause so I will be swapping the coil soon with a spare one from a buddy and will see how she runs - will update after. Again you guys are great !
Dave

 

[trac]

I've been having problems with bad condensers it will run like crap if you can get it started

 

[BonedocDave]

Ok so new plugs and condenser- points ok- all gapped properly - carb adjusted as told - new coil - starts instantly and runs great with no smoke..........for about 10 minutes!!! then starts to chug with ++black smoke and poor power. What is strange to me is that the black smoke tells me its rich BUT pulling the choke makes it rev and run stronger for a bit until it stalls. The guys at the shop told me that when they changed the rad fluid it started to bubble in the rad when the engine warmed up so they thought the head gasket was leaking?? Does any of this make sense???

With all this going on I've found a really sweet TO-35 (1956 beige and green) for a good price - just thinking this way makes me feels like I'm cheating on the old TEA20 !!

Dave

 

[John(UK)]

If it is doing that then something breaking down, it can't be something mechanical or it would be like that when you start the Engine. How you describe it could be a Coil problem as usually if it is a Condenser, which is the one that gives most trouble, the Engine would start playing up a lot sooner than 10 mins. But you never can tell with electrical stuff, change the Coil or the Condenser and try again. We do get a lot of faulty Condensers.The TEA Engine is supposed to speed up slightly when you pull the choke to prevent it flooding, you can adjust how much it opens at the back of the Carb on the link between the Throttle and Choke spindles. The Choke spindle should "flutter" when the choke is pulled and the Engine is running, if it doesn't, move the spring that hooks into plate on the end of the spindle to one less slot until it does "Flutter"..John(UK)[email protected]