Farmall 656 electrical/starting

Farmall 656

Member
My dad had an electrical issue with his 1967 Farmall 656 this winter. You would start the tractor and it would run like a top and then 30-40 seconds later shut down. Then, it wouldn't start. After scratching the head a few times and having this happen a couple of more times, he called his tractor guy. His diagnosis and fix was to replace the electric device off of the carburetor and replace it with a manual adjustment. Problem solved-tractor runs like a top. Today, I started and ran the tractor then parked it. A few hours later, I started it and 30-40 seconds later it shut down. I could not start it. I checked the spark at the points and nothing. This has had new points, condenser, rotor, and spark plugs this spring. The battery is in good shape.

I am looking for any advice, ideas, guidance for my dad to try next. Thank you in advance!
 
Is there fuel in the carb. (IIRC) it has a drain plug in the bowl. Make sure fuel runs out for at least one minute with strong flow. Soda straw diameter flow. 30 to 40 seconds is about all they will run if the fuel supply is stopped (the fuel stop at the tank is open is it not?) It should be shut off every time the tractor is shut off. Jim
 
Simple trouble shooting thing is do a hot wire from the battery ignition side to the coil and try to start it. If it starts and runs then you problem is from the coil back. If it does not start and you still have no spark it is in the distributor
 
Well first off your fuel shut down soloide was NOT your problem , Your TRACTOR GUY really does not know his I H 's . Your problem is in the points as they have a glazed over contact and may look fine to your eye but there is a crusty buildup on them . The points ya get today are not as good as they use to be . I have had more then one set straight out of the box that did not work , even with trying to clean them . Every year i would got to this widowed lady's place and get her cub lowboy serviced for summer . The day i was going to her place to get her cubby out of the shed i stopped at the local Case I H dealer and picked up new plugs points cond. cap and rotor and oil filter and oil . Every fall she would remove the battery and place it on a shelf in the basement with a trickle charger on it and i would install the battery and drive the cubby out of the shed and do the service on it then park it in the one side of her garage . I installed the battery and fired it up and drove it out side to work on it in the sun lite . While the oil was draining i changed the plugs and did the points and cond. cap and rotor . Put the oil in it and when i went to start it it would not lite , no fire at the points . I messed with it for half and hour and then put the old points in and it fired wright off , put the new points in and no spark . Well there was and oliver dealer up the road a couple miles and i knew he had Tisco brand and i went and picked up a tisco points set and installed them and i had fire . I took the new Case I H points back to the I H store and gave them to my buddy and he just threw them in the trash and gave me another set . A couple weeks later he came to the shop after work and he was going to tune up his 450 as he and i shared the same shop . He went down to the shed and drove his 450 up to the shop and did the plugs points and cond. thing and when he went to start his 450 he had NO SPARK . Jokingly i said what did you do dig them points i brought back out of the trash and think you were going to get off cheap or what. He said NO i got this set off the shelf and they just came in on the stock order today . So that was two sets of points bad wright out of the box in less them two weeks and there were more to follow over the years . and made me change how i kept stock on the truck from just two sets for early and late points to a half dozen of each . You did not want top find yourself thirty miles out in BF EGEPT land at 8 o clock at night trying to get a guy going only to find out that the new points you installed are junk and not have a backup on hand. On the fuel shut off solinode thing , If you hear a little CLICK when you turn the key on it is working , no clicky no go and installing a adjustable fuel screw on any of the ones that had the solinoid you run the risk of running the engine to LEAN and lean is mean and will do more damage to the engine . SOOOOOOOooooooo if you have and adjustable fuel screw then back it off no less then five turns off the seat if not more . The fuel solinoid was there for SHUT DOWN of the engine when the key was turned OFF so it would not DIESEL or run on after the key was turned off.
 
This will only tell you if the problem is behind or ahead of the post on the coil, not that there is something wrong with the distributor. You can fiddle with the distributor 'til you're blue in the face and it still won't have spark if, for example, the coil is bad.
 
A coil be bad is super unlikely. In all the years I have messed with engine other then the front mount 9N/2N/8N ford I have only had one coil that was bad and that was on my ford 841 so doing as I said is an easy cheap way to trouble shoot most problems with ignition
 
Well. if that is so, maybe you would be so kind as to elaborate on the subject a little. Not trying to make you flip out, just curious. You say it is an easy way to troubleshoot most ignition problems, what does this test really tell for sure, other than whether you have power to the coil or not? I may be way off base but it seems like a few seconds with a voltmeter would do the same thing. Maybe bad coils are a regional thing, I have had several bad ones.
 

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