1950 Model M Questions

I have posted in the past about helping a neighbor rebuild his Model M. We have it all back together and are trying to get it to start. This tractor was a basket case when he bought his house and the tractor came with it in pieces. It has an electronic ignition in it. First some basic assumptions. I assume the distributor turns clockwise, correct? The distributor cap looks like a 4 cylinder cap, but with only 2 plug wires and the coil wire in the center. I assume the #1 plug wire is the first after the 2 blanks going clockwise. And I assume the #1 plug is closest to the fan.

So far we have looked through the view hole at the flywheel and found the line that says SPARK. We marked the line with white paint. I turned the distributor until the rotor pointed at the #1 plug contact.
We turn the switch to ignition but get no power to the coil and no spark. We then hot wired the coil straight to negative side of the battery. We got spark but it wouldn't start. I used a timing light and couldn't see the SPARK line. I turned the distributor until I could see the spark line and it is about 180 degrees off.

Also, I pulled a sparkplug and don't smell gas on it. I plan to do a dry and wet compression test. I suspect with the fresh overhaul we don't have enough compression yet to pull the gas up from the carb. I'm thinking we need to squirt a little oil in each cylinder to get enough compression to pull the gas to get it to start.

Sorry for the long post. I'm a Ford guy and don't know much about JDs.

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks, Danny

Did you have the oil pump out if so you need to get number one up on compression to the top then your timing mark should be in line then pull the oil pump out n get it in time so the distributer is in the right place it took me 2 tries there is a tool for doing this but I did mine without it

Yep, oil pump needs retimed or pull the dist, knock out the pin and turn the drive lug half a turn and put the pin back. First option is the correct way. When correct the coil terminal will be about 4 o'clock with the 1 post at about 12:30.

SPARK is the wrong mark. You need TC/DC to time everything. SPARK is the mark you want to see in the window at full throttle.

If it isn't pulling the gas in the easiest thing to do is pull it. Use 4th gear.

Help me understand how timing the oil pump affect timing. As long as the rotor points at the #1 cap position at TDC shouldn't that work? Remember I'm not JD knowledgeable.

The Drive lug on the oil pump only allows the distributor to be installed one way. If you pull the distributor back
out you'll see that the driven lug of the distributor is Slightly off from center. Thus the it could/can be installed
180? out of time.

Yes as long as the rotor points to the #1 cap position at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke it will work. You said it's 180 degrees off which means it's pointing to the #1 post on the exhaust stroke. Since the distributer will only go in one way you have to drop the oil pump to get that rotor to point to the no 1 post at the top of the compression stroke. The only difference between that Deere and any other gas burner is there's a one way drive lug for the dist instead of a gear.

i do not understand this comment. if the drive slot and the driven lug are off center, the dist will only drop in one way. The driven gear off the cam will determine the directional rotation when the rotor points to no 1 on the cap. i would stick with MMan's direction.

In defense of my comment I didn't go into the timing because everyone else did. And the spelled it
out correctly. What I did thought Dan realize the drive & driven lugs were slightly off center, thus
meaning the importance of timing the oil pump with the cam because then it could be 180? out.

Make sure the cylinders have some oil in them and then once you have it timed correctly pull start it.

Here's the page explaining it.

We finally got my neighbor's Model M to start after several months. First he had knee replacement surgery and then I threw my back out. We had to pull the oil pump out and time it. At first we could get it to hit a few times with starting fluid. Then played with the carb some and now it will start and run. I need to figure out how to get the carb set correctly. I think it is running rich. Black puffs of smoke out the exhaust. Any help will be appreciated!

Can you use a timing light to time this tractor? If so, should I see DC or SPARK in the window when it is timed right?

You should see the "spark" in the window at high idle (2025-2050 rpm). Correct timing will make a difference.
CPeter