[AT] success at last (tractor)

[charlie hill]

Greg,  I've got an old Fairbanks Morse stationary engine.
When I got it the thing it had an automotive coil wired
into the mag through a hole drilled in the corner of the
mag cover.  I dug into it with the intention of putting it back
in original condition.  I figured I had a real challenge on my
hands because I had never worked on a magneto before.
Well it turned out that the wire from the factory coil (inside the
mag cover) that goes over to the ground lug that shuts the engine
down had rubbed on the case long enough to wear a hole through
the insulation and the factory coil was permanently grounded out.
I taped the wire up good with some good electrical tape, took of the
automotive coil, fixed the hole in the cap with some JB weld, sand paper
and flat black spray paint and all was well in the world.

The point behind this story is that you might well have something as simple 
as
a grounded out wire somewhere in that MAG.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Greg Hass
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2017 3:44 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] success at last (tractor)

This story starts about a year and a half ago. It was fall and I parked
my Farmall Cub in the barn. A couple of days later I went to move it to
its winter parking spot. It started right up but as I went to move it,
it started missing and almost stalled but then picked up and I was able
to move it and then it acted up again. Well, the weather was cold and
getting colder so I decided to wait until spring. Come spring, it did
the same thing. Sometimes it would act up and sometimes I could work the
garden for 20 minutes without a problem. I posted to this list and 98%
plus said a fuel problem. I was torn between fuel and electrical but had
no idea how to tell which. The first thing I did was remove the gas bowl
under the tank. I have worked on IH tractors for over 50 years and have
never seen a bowl with so much dirt in it. I cleaned it and then noticed
junk in the gas tank; which I drained the gas and flushed the tank. It
didn't run right but good enough for the season. Fast foreword to this
spring; I put the belly blade on to grade the driveway but it run
terrible and it hurt my sore back jerking so much. A friend came over
and we removed the gas bowl again and replaced the screen up by the
shutoff. We then replaced the in-line filter, no help. We then took off
the carb and cleaned it. My friend then thought maybe the new in-line
filter was the problem because it has some sort of check valve in it
that the old one didn't have. I told him that every time I run it
without that filter the carb leaks but we had to try something ( last
year I put on a new distributor cab just in case it had a carbon track
even though the old one only had 20 hours on it ). Well, when we shut
the tractor off, the carb was leaking. We took the carb off again and
cleaned it completely and put in a new float valve. With a in-line
filter we knew had good flow we hooked it to an old lawn more tank to
make sure nothing was blocked in the main tank or shut-off. We then
hooked up all the lines as they should be and we were at the end of our
rope. Before I go any further, let me tell you the problem was the last
thing I tried. I know the joke, after you find the problem you quite
looking, but in my case there was nothing else. On with the story; my
brother happened to stop and he started touching wires by the switch and
it seemed to make a difference, so I unhooked them and run a wire
straight to the coil from the battery ( 20 hrs. ago the mag quite
working so I unhooked it and put in new points and condensor and added a
12 volt coil with internal resistor). At this point I didn't think it
would help but I ordered new spark plug wires- the old ones were in
really bad shape.  While waiting for the wires, I was at my brothers and
asked if I could borrow one of his high powered rifles and just go home
and shoot the Cub. Next I moved to the coil. My brother once had a
combine that acted just like this and after 4 hours work the dealers
mechanic figured out it was the coil. At $15 I put a new coil on. Now I
was down to just the mag. . I took the cap off and could see that with
no feeling in my left hand I was not going to work at it on the tractor.
I hated to do it, but took the mag off and looked for a short and found
none. Mind you, this had all been gone through 20 hrs. ago. The points
were fine and the gap correct. That left only one thing. Being the
weekend and everything closed, I went to the shed and got a used mag.
that was on a Cub power unit on a combine that was bought new in 1952. I
took the condensor out of it and put it in the tractor. I put it all
back together and fired it up and it hasn't missed a beat since. I
finished grading the driveway and have worked the garden twice and runs
great. Mind you, all because of a part with less than 20 hrs. use.
Myself and others always though a condensor was either good or bad, not
work sometimes and not other times.
              Greg Hass
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