the saga continues

I got the plug wires as per MS's photo. still would not start. took the hose off the carb (air cleaner) and gave the carb a short squirt of starter fluid. it backfired through the carb and the carb had flames coming from it.

since 1981 I have had a bunch of 8N's, 9N's, a 54 NAA, a 3400 and four TO series Fergusons and never have I had a machine so dam hard to start.

so I am thinking now do I need to take the carb off? the engine turns over but makes no real effort to run. no spits, gurgles, nothing that would make me think it is fuel related.

fwiw:

tomorrow morning I am going to get a new set of points/condenser and give that a shot.

QUIT BUYING PARTS till you KNOW whats wrong.

you are all over on this one.

carb, back fire, points.. etc.

verify timing, fire order and spark.

if you get those, and it has compression.. make it RUN on start fluid.

if it will do that. then look at fuel system

so far the only parts I have bought is a wire set and that was cause the varmints ate the old ones.
a point set doesn't cost that much so I will replace them. I still have three boxes of 437's from my 8N days. I also have a new 6V coil that I bought many years ago and never used that will work.
I was truly hoping the starting fluid would have gotten it running but not this time. about timing. it was running fine when parked last nov. so I am wondering what would have caused the timing to shift if I never moved the tractor.
tomorrow is another day.............

The rain must have stopped around your area.

First be sure of your timing and spark before you try and tackle any fuel issues you might have.

If you tried the wires in the order that looked right and it is now backfiring you have to take the ignition timing back to basics and find TDC (Top Dead Center) for your engine to make sure they are on the correct cylinders.

It really isn't that hard.
- First pull the #1 cylinder plug.
- Remove the tower wire from your coil so you don't get zapped and the tractor doesn't try and start.
- Remove your distributor cap and hold away from the rotor so you can see the rotor as it rotates.
- Tap the ignition key (one tick at a time) to slowly rotate the engine (notice what direction the rotor turns).
- Using a finger over the plug hole rotate engine until there is pressure pushing your finger (this will be the beginning of compression stroke for #1 cylinder)
- Use a rod or long screwdriver to find exactly where the cylinder is in its travel.
- Get the #1 cylinder to be as close to the plug hole as possible on the compression stroke. Once the cylinder is as close as it can be [u:e73fdba55f]stop[/u:e73fdba55f].
- The position the rotor ends up in is #1 cylinder on your distributor cap. Put your #1 plug wire on that tower of the cap.

The rest should fall into place. Follow the 1-2-4-3 firing order in the direction the rotor turned and you should be golden.

My neighbor's Ford 2000 3 cyl. gasser would not start and was backfiring through the carburetor. Wasted a few hours on it before I realized that his kids had crossed the plug wires when they installed new plugs. Is it possible that you've crossed wires??

Or maybe assumed the wrong rotation direction of the distributor rotor when installing the new wires??

Read my last post in your old thread. I think that your distributor posts are off by one from mark's picture. If you have it wired like the picture that Mark posted, then try moving all of the wires one post in the counter clockwise direction on the distributor. If that doesn't work, then pull the number one spark plug and find TDC on the number one cylinder and see what post the rotor is pointing at on the distributor.

Interesting you had a 3400.
I picked my 3400 T/L/B up this last September. That's what brought me to this forum. People that know older tractors around my area are getting scarce. The people on this forum have helped me a lot.

Try not to get frustrated. If you tackle one thing at a time the solution will be found. First the ignition system must

rain stopped for awhile now its back.

This is exactly what I had to do on my neighbor's 2000 to get it running. Pulled the valve cover and found the #1 piston TDC (both rockers slack) and connect the distributor #1 position to the #1 plug.

Then, know which way your distributor rotor turns and connect the remaining wires in correct firing order.

liked the tractor and it had a dunham lehr FEL on it.

Remember the finding of TDC is not to set your timing, it is to find which of the distributor cap towers is for #1 cylinder.

Knowing it ran when you put it up means as long as you don't move the distributor the "timing" should still be OK.
I suppose if you really didn't want to go through the procedure to find TDC you could just verify which direction your rotor turns and play ring around the rosie with the wires. It should take a maximum of four tests to see if that will work. Shift wires by one position every test.
The firing sequence order will be the same no matter which way the rotor turns. Follow the order in the direction of the rotor's rotation. If the rotor goes clockwise the order goes clockwise, if the rotor goes counterclockwise the order goes counterclockwise.

But if the ring around the rosie trick doesn't get the tractor running, you will have no other choice but to find TDC and work from there.

Depending on how you mesh the gears on distributor drive, #1 can be any one of the 4 holes & rotor can be pointing anywhere you want. (They came from the factory with the rotor pointing toward the right front cylinder head bolt)

Remove #1 spark plug. With ignition off, place thumb or finger over the #1 spark plug hole and crank slowly until compression is felt.

Continue to crank the engine until the timing mark, 0° (top dead center) on the flywheel is found in the timing window on the right side of flywheel housing. NOTE: Flywheel is calibrated from 0° to 20° in two places, 180° apart. You want the mark for TDC compression stroke. Use a screw driver on the flywheel starter ring gear to rotate to exactly align the 4° mark with the pointer.

Insert the distributor assembly with the gears fully meshed, the rotor should point to the right front cylinder head bolt.

The important aspect is that rotor points to hole where #1 wire is plugged in. If not, remove and re-engage until the proper rotor position is obtained. This assumes that the No. 1 plug wire is in the distributor cap socket in line with the right front cylinder head bolt.

Rotate the distributor housing counter clockwise until the breaker points are closed.

Install the distributor cap; connect the primary, secondary and spark plug wires.

Hold the end of #1 spark plug wire approximately 1/8" from the cylinder head or manifold with the ignition "on", and then slowly rotate the distributor housing clockwise until a spark occurs - The spark should occur in less than 1/8 turn of the distributor housing.

Tighten the clamp screw securely.

Distributor rotation for the NAA and later is clockwise.