Farmall 460 died - think it's electrical

Stein

New User
First off, I hate to be one of "those guys" where the first post is a question but I do come hat-in-hand on this.

Picked up a Farmall 460 gas the other day. Guy I got it from had traded a larger tractor for it. He was driving it home and it died. It sat for a year and I bought it.

I suspected the carb and old gas so I drained it and cleaned/rebuilt the carb and installed a new float needle and seat. Reinstalled carb and it started right up and idled and ran perfectly.

Driving it home I made it about 7 miles and it just flat died. No sputter or anything - just running wide open and then nothing.

Towed it the rest of the way home. Every time I cranked it, it would pop off immediately but die as soon as I released the starter. I pulled the fuel line off the carb and got good stream. Pulled carb and went through it again and all looks good. Reinstalled carb and again it would pop off immediately but die as soon as I release the starter.

Out of frustration I held the starter button and it starts and runs perfectly evenly as long as the starter is held. Let go and it immediately dies. Bump the starter button while it is dieing and it restarts and runs smoothly as many times or as long as I do it. It's just like turning off the key when it dies - not a single pop or sputter while dieing.

So I'm suspecting something electrical like a short killing the spark and possibly enough residual voltage when I touch the starter button to keep it running. It's not like the starter is dragging the motor around.

Any suggestions on where to start looking? I have what was supposed to be a factory service manual but it doesn't have the electrical schematic in it.

Thanks in advance,

John
 
check your resistor by the coil. my 606 would do the same thing. the coil gets power during cranking from a post on the starter then when the starter is released the source of power comes from the ignition switch to the resistor to the coil
 
(quoted from post at 09:25:41 05/21/15) check your resistor by the coil. my 606 would do the same thing. the coil gets power during cranking from a post on the starter then when the starter is released the source of power comes from the ignition switch to the resistor to the coil

Will check. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
JAsher is probably correct. The fact that it dies as soon as the key is released from start, is a giveaway answer. Som IH have a ignition resistor built into the wire from the key to the coil. the bypass circuit to the starter allows it to start, then the faulty wire/resistor is put in play and it dies. Running a 14ga wire down to the coil, then using a ballast resistor from a mid 1960s Chevy Biscayne to connect to the coil is a best option as it reduces the time needed to find a correct resistor wire, and messing with the wire loom. Taping the new wire to the loom is best practice. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 12:53:19 05/21/15) JAsher is probably correct. The fact that it dies as soon as the key is released from start, is a giveaway answer. Som IH have a ignition resistor built into the wire from the key to the coil. the bypass circuit to the starter allows it to start, then the faulty wire/resistor is put in play and it dies. Running a 14ga wire down to the coil, then using a ballast resistor from a mid 1960s Chevy Biscayne to connect to the coil is a best option as it reduces the time needed to find a correct resistor wire, and messing with the wire loom. Taping the new wire to the loom is best practice. Jim

Thanks for the info. I'll pick up a resistor tomorrow. I checked and it's in stock at my local auto parts store.
 
Installed ballast resistor and new wire and it runs perfectly. Thanks for the help! The original wire ran to the coil and then down to a thing on the side of the head that has a spring-looking thing in it. Not sure what it is or if I need to jumper the wire from the coil to it. I left the original wire to it but I assume it isn't doing anything. Should I jump the new wire to it?
 

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