[wncfarmer]

My 8N died today as I was heading down the road. Luckily I was able to coast down the hill until there was a shoulder. Climbed off and checked my fuel flow and pulled a plug to check for spark. No spark. I was thinking it was perhaps the ignition coil as I walked the 30 minutes back to the house. Got in the truck and headed back to the tractor and tried cranking it. It cranked right up! This made me think maybe there was a thermal issue with the coil(??) since it cooled down a bit, but then it died after running maybe 30 seconds. Pulled a plug again, no spark. Pulled the coil wire off the distributor cap, had spark. So....is it worth it to go for the cheap fix and replace my points/button/cap? Or is this indicative of something more sinister, like the whole distributor????

 

[BruceG34]

Only one thing I know of will quit when it gets hot and start working agin when it cools off. Coil.
I had a neighbor with an old Snapper comet with a bad coil and he mowed with it for years like that when it quit he'd get off and have a couple of beers and let it cool off. I offered to replace it once with a coil off one of my junkers and he refused. said when it quit it was time to stop.

 

[Jason1Pa]

Coil probably. Just make sure when you get a new one that the little spring is making contact with the screw down there. Sometimes you need to pull on them a bit to get it to make contact

 

[wncfarmer]

I pulled a plug this morning and had no spark when I tried to crank. I replaced the rotor button, the condenser, dist. cap, and points then pulled a plug and had spark...the tractor actually cranked on the 3 cylinders until I turned it off. Replaced the 4th plug, cranked tractor, it ran for maybe 30seconds, then died. Pulled plug again...no spark now. What is going on with this thing???? On a (maybe) related note, I noticed the wire from the primary terminal on the distributor was not connected to anything....shouldn't that run up and connect to one of the posts on the coil?

 

[Jason1Pa]

We are going to need more info first. Is this 6 volt or 12? Is it a side distributor or front mount? either way you may be on to something with that wire. All wires need to go some where. You normally dont have extras.. well I take that back I've seen some pretty scarry wiring threw the years! :lol:

 

[wncfarmer]

LOL...I know what you mean about scary wiring! I used to have an old toyota pickup that had a big mess of wires on the harness that a previous owner had taken about half of them, cut them, and wrapped the ends in tape. Never did figure out where some of them ended up.....

It's a 12volt side mount. I did hook that wire back up to the coil....I think I might have bumped it loose poking around. Still having the same problem.

 

[Jason1Pa]

Sorry for the late reply. I have never owned or worked on a side dist Ford or even a 12 volt conversion so I'm not to sure if I would be giving good advice

 

[soundguy]

jumper from the bat to the coil to bypass ignition switch and other wire connectors.. now check.. post back

 

[wncfarmer]

So it turns out that my issue was 2 fold....ignition coil plus massive rust in my gas tank. I went to inspect the coil and noticed it had a small crack and was leaking fluid. Replaced it. She fired right up and had great power for about 1 minute...then stalled out. No fuel coming out carb. Big flakes of rust swimming around in gas tank. Replaced tank. Running great now. Thanks!

 

[soundguy]

if the coil cracked.. make sure you are not running a 6v coil on 12v.. etc..

also a 6v coil on 6v, if left on can overheat them too.. or a 6v square coil on 6v with no resistor.. etc ..

 

[Jason1Pa]

Good to hear you found out the problems!

 

[soundguy]

same here!