[AT] Ford 4000 Quitting Afer Running a While

[Bo Hinch]

A friend of mine was having same problems last fall with his 5000 . Several
people had worked on it and when I went to help out , they had taken off
the carburetor , fuel line and bowl . I removed the cap to inspect the
points and found the tip of the points had become loose ,( weld broken at
tip ) . Purchased electronic kit , installed in dist. while fuel system was
hooked back up , started and ran tractor . He has not had the first problem
with it since .

Bo Hinch


On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Alan Nadeau <ajnadeau1 at myfairpoint.net>wrote:

> The shooting club I belong to has a Ford 4000 which is having "issues".
>  I'm not sure where to start trying to narrow it down.  This is the newer
> version with the 3 cyl. gas engine, not the early one which looks like a
> beefed up N Series.  We use it, with a 6 foot bushhog, to keep the
> weed/brush growth down on several acres of old pasture land around the club
> grounds.  I get along with it as it is the right age, even if it is an off
> brand(Ford was never real popular around here).  Nobody else really cares
> to operate it as it is a bit of a clubfoot and is not a shiny compact
> tractor.
>
> I starts fine and runs good for the first 1-2 hours.  Then it starts to
> stumble and over a few minutes gets worse until it dies completely.
>  Sometimes it will restart immediately and run (barely) for a few seconds,
> at other times it won't restart without sitting 30-45 minutes.  After that
> rest period it will again run normally but for a shorter time, continuing
> that sequence until It won't run at all until completely cooled down.
>
> When it starts stumbling I can usually notice the difference in engine
> note.  If I catch it in time I find I can take the load off it, close the
> throttle to barely above idle and, by playing with the choke, manage to
> limp it back to the barn.
>
> It doesn't backfire when it acts up, if it was going lean I would expect
> it to belch and bellow.  If the ignition was cutting out completely, then
> kicking back in I would also expect a horrendous backfire from unburned
> fuel filling the exhaust and then getting lit off.
>
> Since I am always alone when I'm working it I don't have anyone around to
> help in trying to troubleshoot the thing.  Unless I am constantly playing
> with the choke it dies, there is no pulling the choke partway and having it
> continue to run.
>
> One thing that may be relevant or not is that this thing has the
> absolutely harsh exhaust fumes I have ever been exposed to.  Terrible eye
> irritating stuff.  I added some to the stack so it is quite a bit higher
> than my head and I'm still coming home with my eyes so irritated that I
> often have to pull my eyelids part manually when awakening the morning
> after a hogging session.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?  If you want more information ask any questions and
> I'll answer them as fully as I can.
>
> As for taking it to a shop, it is really hard now to find anyone who knows
> diddly about carburetors and spark ignition.  Because it only acts up after
> being worked for a while I'm not sure how viable it would be to get it into
> a shop.  Now that I think about it I may well let it run at high idle and
> see if it craps out without a load.  If it does that would make getting it
> to a shop a bit more practical.
>
> Al Nadeau
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>