lastcowboy32
Well-known Member
In the name of paying the group back for their help. Here are some things that tripped me up, that maybe I can keep the next guy out of...
Three things in the picture above.
Finding out that the battery tray pivots out made my life much better.
Also, if you're fussin' with the distributor, there is a little shield to the forward side of the tractor. Take that out of the way, it makes your life much easier, with respect to getting your hand to the back clip for the distributor cap.
Hard to see, but just under the seat is a hydraulic remote unit that I bought for 279 bucks from Southeast Tractor. It's a full (out and back, two hose) single remote. I just used it yesterday on the haybine. Seems to work fine. Dealers around here wanted 500 bucks for a scrap one of actual Ford provenance. Time will tell. By the way, the remote unit's instructions said that you "may" need forma-gasket to seal it down...I did. It leaked just a tiny bit the first time that I bolted it in place.
It makes a BIG difference if you use the correct spark plug boots! I bought this tractor with "will fit" boots. The plugs are down in the block, right under a seam in the hood. Water drips in there, crud gets in there. These plugs were so corroded, that they barely held a wrench to come out. The seats were also rusty, which caused problems when I installed the new plugs (see later). The plugs looked like crap. The ends of the plug wires were all corroded inside the boots. Just bad, bad, bad all over.
I had to get the crap out of the spark plug holes before I could even get a wrench on them. Shop vac tip....plus 3/8" gas line...with a cake decorating tip (apologies to my wife) all taped together got down in there to suck it out after I loosened it with a screwdriver. A tiny wand with compressed air might work too. After I got the plugs out, I turned the tractor over with the starter a few times with no plugs in the holes to let the compression blow out anything still in the bores or that maybe fell into the cylinder.
This is what they looked like when they came out.
By the way, your deep well 13/16" impact socket won't fit down in the bore. I had to make a run downtown to grab a thin-walled (non-impact) 13/16" deep well socket to get down in the bore to get these out.
It may be obvious to most, but I should just mention...if you see sketchy lumps of electrical tape on the wiring, pull it back. Under this piece were a couple of wire ends lazily twisted together, just waiting to come undone at the worst moment in the middle of haying on some 90 degree day far from your garage.
Crimp connectors are cheap. Marine grade, adhesive shrink tubing is cheap...all available at Harbor Freight. It doesn't cost much to make a better connection than just twisting two wires together.
Someone adapted a car muffler. It actually wasn't that bad of an idea, but all rusty, loud and leaking. I copied it with a 40 dollar "Ford" muffler from Tractor Supply and about ten bucks in adapters from NAPA to lengthen the end of the muffler. 2" OD fits in the exhaust manifold. 2-1/2" OD fits over the exhaust manifold (I used a wrench as a spacer during welding)...a rain cap and a 2-3/4" muffler clamp to clamp it onto the exhaust manifold, and it's quiet with no fumes at the operator station.
The screws for the points and the condenser can be a pain. Tweezers, or a magnetized screwdriver...you'll probably need somthing to get them in place and started.
The "official" plug wires in the kit from this website are designed to seal the bores. That's good. No more crud around the spark plugs. Problem is, I couldn't push the boots down far enough to get that satisfying "click" to seat on the spark plug. After some test running of the tractor (which was smooth as silk) it started skipping. Yup....number two plug wire popped out of the bore. I tried putting soap on the cable to maybe slide the boot. No dice. So, I cut the flange off of the boots to get the wires right down in there and feel the click. This is when I found another issue. My number two plug wire then held fine, until I went out with the haybine and really put some gas to the old girl. It still popped. My reasoning is this. Remember how crappy the old plugs look, and remember how tight I said that the bores were for the socket. I think that my number two plug wasn't seated properly (I torqued it in at 30ft-lbs, as said in the manual)...I was thinking that I may have gotten a pre-mature click on my torque wrench. My guess is that a little compression was leaking past and popping the plug boot up and out of the bore. I re-tweaked the spark plug...re-installed the boot...again and then worked the tractor hard for a few hours with no issues.
After all of that, once the wiring, plug wires, points, condenser, distributor cap, rotor and the coil were made right, I found that this little 3000 is a silky smooth, quiet, clean running little power house. Ran my haybine and baler quietly and effectively. My wife used it some last night, and she approves. If my cowgirl is happy. I'm happy.
Three things in the picture above.
Finding out that the battery tray pivots out made my life much better.
Also, if you're fussin' with the distributor, there is a little shield to the forward side of the tractor. Take that out of the way, it makes your life much easier, with respect to getting your hand to the back clip for the distributor cap.
Hard to see, but just under the seat is a hydraulic remote unit that I bought for 279 bucks from Southeast Tractor. It's a full (out and back, two hose) single remote. I just used it yesterday on the haybine. Seems to work fine. Dealers around here wanted 500 bucks for a scrap one of actual Ford provenance. Time will tell. By the way, the remote unit's instructions said that you "may" need forma-gasket to seal it down...I did. It leaked just a tiny bit the first time that I bolted it in place.
It makes a BIG difference if you use the correct spark plug boots! I bought this tractor with "will fit" boots. The plugs are down in the block, right under a seam in the hood. Water drips in there, crud gets in there. These plugs were so corroded, that they barely held a wrench to come out. The seats were also rusty, which caused problems when I installed the new plugs (see later). The plugs looked like crap. The ends of the plug wires were all corroded inside the boots. Just bad, bad, bad all over.
I had to get the crap out of the spark plug holes before I could even get a wrench on them. Shop vac tip....plus 3/8" gas line...with a cake decorating tip (apologies to my wife) all taped together got down in there to suck it out after I loosened it with a screwdriver. A tiny wand with compressed air might work too. After I got the plugs out, I turned the tractor over with the starter a few times with no plugs in the holes to let the compression blow out anything still in the bores or that maybe fell into the cylinder.
This is what they looked like when they came out.
By the way, your deep well 13/16" impact socket won't fit down in the bore. I had to make a run downtown to grab a thin-walled (non-impact) 13/16" deep well socket to get down in the bore to get these out.
It may be obvious to most, but I should just mention...if you see sketchy lumps of electrical tape on the wiring, pull it back. Under this piece were a couple of wire ends lazily twisted together, just waiting to come undone at the worst moment in the middle of haying on some 90 degree day far from your garage.
Crimp connectors are cheap. Marine grade, adhesive shrink tubing is cheap...all available at Harbor Freight. It doesn't cost much to make a better connection than just twisting two wires together.
Someone adapted a car muffler. It actually wasn't that bad of an idea, but all rusty, loud and leaking. I copied it with a 40 dollar "Ford" muffler from Tractor Supply and about ten bucks in adapters from NAPA to lengthen the end of the muffler. 2" OD fits in the exhaust manifold. 2-1/2" OD fits over the exhaust manifold (I used a wrench as a spacer during welding)...a rain cap and a 2-3/4" muffler clamp to clamp it onto the exhaust manifold, and it's quiet with no fumes at the operator station.
The screws for the points and the condenser can be a pain. Tweezers, or a magnetized screwdriver...you'll probably need somthing to get them in place and started.
The "official" plug wires in the kit from this website are designed to seal the bores. That's good. No more crud around the spark plugs. Problem is, I couldn't push the boots down far enough to get that satisfying "click" to seat on the spark plug. After some test running of the tractor (which was smooth as silk) it started skipping. Yup....number two plug wire popped out of the bore. I tried putting soap on the cable to maybe slide the boot. No dice. So, I cut the flange off of the boots to get the wires right down in there and feel the click. This is when I found another issue. My number two plug wire then held fine, until I went out with the haybine and really put some gas to the old girl. It still popped. My reasoning is this. Remember how crappy the old plugs look, and remember how tight I said that the bores were for the socket. I think that my number two plug wasn't seated properly (I torqued it in at 30ft-lbs, as said in the manual)...I was thinking that I may have gotten a pre-mature click on my torque wrench. My guess is that a little compression was leaking past and popping the plug boot up and out of the bore. I re-tweaked the spark plug...re-installed the boot...again and then worked the tractor hard for a few hours with no issues.
After all of that, once the wiring, plug wires, points, condenser, distributor cap, rotor and the coil were made right, I found that this little 3000 is a silky smooth, quiet, clean running little power house. Ran my haybine and baler quietly and effectively. My wife used it some last night, and she approves. If my cowgirl is happy. I'm happy.
