[Farmall] [Bulk (7.09) ] Re: [Bulk (7.09) ] Re: Super C Problem

Ben Wagner supera1948 at gmail.com
Wed Aug 3 10:14:57 PDT 2011


Somehow I know what "painfully obvious" feels like.  I had a small engine, a
great little motor, that I was fiddling with and I hooked up the spark plug
tester to the plug.  There is no clearance, so I kept grounding the tester.
I said, why don't I hold the tester away from the metal by my hand?  I was
wearing old leather gloves, and I guess there was a hole big enough to make
contact.  I turned the motor over, and would you know that it started, plug
tester in place!  I took a nice jump that day, ripped the tester to pieces.
I think a tractor coil puts out c. 10000 volts or more....

I've checked for spark by this method;

1.  Pull off the spark plug cable.  By the boot (part that attaches to the
plug) not the cable.
2.  Attach the cable to a good spark plug.  NOT one from the engine, unless
you want to splash fuel all over the place and make a spark. I use a spark
plug purchased new and kept for this purpose alone so that I know it works.
3.  Touch the little electrode (the "L" on the front of the plug) to bare
metal on your engine.  If you gather anything from my story, if you touch
the spark plug while cranking the engine I'd wear good gloves!
4.  Crank the engine.  Like Jim Becker said, if you get a fat blue spark,
you can breathe easier.  Not every spark will do the best job of igniting
the fuel, but all you want to see is a spark.

I'd test every one of the four cables.  However, first I would test the
"jumper" cable running from the coil to the distributor cap.  Hook a spark
plug to that terminal using a spark plug cable and see what happens.  The
test of all four cables would eliminate any distributor/rotor issues, while
this test will eliminate any coil issues.

Just because you get a spark, doesn't mean every thing is good, though.  The
different heat/length/color of sparks will make a difference in the engine
operation.  You can adjust it further by replacing certain parts, gapping
the plugs, or purchasing another type of plug.  Others know more about this
than me no doubt.

Ben Wagner

On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 12:18 PM, Jeff & Ginny Pomije
<vjpomije at bevcomm.net>wrote:

> Hmm, not sure how to take that phrase "painfully obvious".
>
> Jeff
>
> On 8/3/2011 11:10 AM, Jim Becker wrote:
> > You can also check it with no tools, just by holding a spark plug wire
> near
> > a good ground and looking for a fat, blue spark.  If you're not much of a
> > mechanic, you can just hold the wire and crank it over.  If there is a
> good
> > spark, it will be painfully obvious.
> > Jim Becker
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Sloane
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 7:44 AM
> > To: Farmall/IHC mailing list
> > Subject: Re: [Farmall] [Bulk (7.09) ] Re: Super C Problem
> >
> > You can buy inexpensive spark checkers, but here is one I made many
> > years ago
> > <
> http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/tools__equipment/ignition_tester.html>.
> > In fact, I dug it out of my tool box just the other day and used it on
> > the engine of an International 184 that refused to start when hot. I
> > hooked it up and spun the engine with the starter and got a nice blue
> > spark, and that eliminated 1/3 of the alternatives - you need three
> > things to make a gas engine run:
> > 1. spark
> > 2. compression
> > 3. fuel
> >
> > If you have spark and fuel, then you start to look for compression
> > problems - burned valves, sticking valves, bad/broken rings, etc.
> >
> > Chasing this kind of problem can be very frustrating, but you just have
> > keep eliminating things, starting with the easiest/cheapest, and working
> > down the list.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > On 8/3/2011 8:10 AM, Jeff&  Ginny Pomije wrote:
> >> As noted before, I am not much of a mechanic.  How do I do this?
> >>
> >> Jeff
> >>
> >> On 8/2/2011 10:03 PM, Jim Becker wrote:
> >>> Next time it does it, immediately stop and check the spark at the spark
> >>> plugs.  That should make it obvious whether the problem is ignition  or
> >>> fuel.  My guess is fuel.
> >>> Jim Becker
> >>>
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