FORD 9N FRONT MOUNT DISTRIBUTOR QUESTIONS

Hello, I am a new member here. My son and I are working on a 9N with a front mount distributor and a 12V conversion which we installed this spring. We use it to pull a finish mower for our yard-nothing too strenuous. We installed a new starter and a tune up kit (plugs/wires/cap/condensor/rotor and points). And a new carb, too boot. Maybe in our enthusiasm to "fix up" this tractor, we created more problems for ourselves. The tractor never really ran strong. We even had the local Ford/New Holland dealer work on this, as well. The did another tune up, incorrectly installed a new 6V coil and adjusted the carb. Still no real progress. The tractor ran fine one day, then stalled. We noticed the correct 12V coil was hot to the touch, so we swapped it with another new one. That worked. Then last weekend, while pulling the mower, the tractor started to run rough and backfire. We barely limped it back to the garage. Ran through the tune up specs and now it won't fire up. Weak spark. I read several posts here, Appears coils are a hot topic, as well as the general trouble shooting proceedures. I walked through those--verified the gap, the timing, the contacts (we even got good at removing/installing the distributer/coil as a unit. We did find a bent cinnector on the coil (not the spring pigtail, but the front one). I thought this was going to help, but it did not. We had weak spark, but no start.
Basically what I noticed is that with the distributer on the bench, (for about the 5th time) is that it appears that the rotor is not making physical contact with the brass pad inside the cap for each of the spark plug connectors. I looked at an old cap we had, and they had grooves worn in them.
My questions are this:
1) Is the brass strip in the rotor supposed to come in physical contact with the brass oval contact moulded in the distributor cap?
2.) If is is, and mine is not, how do you remedy this?
(it is a new cap and a new rotor)
3.) Is it likely that the distributor is worn, and not allowing it to make good contact? There is some front to back "slop" on the distributor shaft itself. Also, Once in a while while turning the shaft by hand to visually look things over, it appeared the rotor got "stuck" on the moulded shoulder in the cap, below the contact.
Can anyone offer any solutions?
Thanks in advance!
Paul

NO. The rotor does not make phisical contact with the cap. If it did it would break the rotor.

Do you have a resistor in the ignition circuit to the coil???

You really need a volt/ohm or multimeter to test the ignition points for good contact and to check for about three volts at the top of the coil connector with the points closed. Any more voltage is going to make toast of the coil and or points.

Lots of arguments about the so called "12" volt coils actually being able to handle anywhere near 12 volts. There by the reason for the resistor in the ignition circuit.

Also check that you have a good contact through the ignition switch. Expecially if it still has the original ignition swithc. You can put both wire onto one of the connector screwes on the switch to check the switch but be sure to take the Negitave cable off the battery while doing it so as not to fry the points while in the process. After the connection is made then reconnect the battery cable and give it a try.

Zane

The end of the rotor is not supposed to touch the brass nipples in the cap. W/ correct coil voltage, it jumps the gap. If at anytime it does touch, you have faulty parts and/or installation, but more likely as you discovered, slop in the shaft caused by worn bushings.

If you detect any back & forth movement whatsoever in the shaft, the bushings are worn.

It's possible toy replace both bushings if you are skilled, careful or lucky. The bottom (rear) bushing is easy to replace. The top bushing requires that you support the tower or you will bend it & then you own a paperweight.

You can try it yourself, get the bushings & take it to a shop or buy a new plate w/ the top bushing installed.

Once you get the bushing problem resolved, post back for more help getting it to run.

Here are the factory specs for the shaft, bushings & cam:

Rear Bushing ID .863

Front Bushing ID .437

Shaft top .436

Shaft Bottom .863

Cam Flats .790

Cam Lobes .870
50 Tips

There is a lot of poorly made new replacement parts sold for the N tractors. I believe that ignition parts for the front mounted distributor are among the worst. Tune up kits manufactured by TISCO are junk. I quit buying TISCO front mount kits several years ago. The points fail quickly even when installed properly and caps and rotors fit poorly. This site sells Standard Ignition Blue Streak points which are the best made but very expensive. nnalert sells reasonably good point sets at a reasonable price but not Blue Streak. I would gett a points set from one of these vendors and see if that fixes your problem before getting to involved with the workings of the distributor. You also may want to visit Hobo's site for directions on hogging out an old front mount coil to converting to using a real no resistor needed round can coil. With "GOOD" points, a no resistor round can coil and a 12 volt system you should have a easily starting good running tractor.

John, did you miss this in his post?

" There is some front to back "slop" on the distributor shaft itself. "

I think he would be wasting his time & money to do anything else to the distributor until he replaces the bushings.

Doesn't matter if it has EI or points, a square coil or round coil, it's not going to run w/ worn out bushings.
50 Tips

He may need new bushings but if he has those junk TISCO points it still will not run correctly even if the distributor is in new condition. I always try the easy fix first. New Blue Streak points would not be wasted even if later he decides to replace the bushings.