I'M HAVING BIG TROUBLE WITH MY IH 444 TRACTOR WANT

The coil wire will give you a nasty shock if you aren'e expecting it, but it is more like an electric fence shock. Use insulated pliers.
Hope this helps.

OK-AL

Just a stretch, but does the starter turn strong when you try to restart it hot? Had a Chevy Malibu once where the belt for the alternator was turning but not turning the alternator. Same symtoms. Drove me crazy cuz the starter would turn fine. It would only not turn at highway speed. Put a meter on your battery and make sure it's charging.

As stated fuel and gas are the key items to try to isolate.
I also have a 444. I can share with your frustration.

Sometimes problems will act concurrently.
I had a floating cap inside the gas tank that would periodically find its way and block the fuel from entering the carbureator.This resulted in unpredictable stops and backfires. Just when I thought all was well it stalled again when I touched the ignition switch. Then I noticed that the electric fuel pump was not clicking. Upon further inspection there was a bad connection from the iginition switch to the electric fuel pump. Perhaps you should drain and vacuum the fuel tank and take a hard look at the ignition switch.
Good luck

Tom

WD-40 will not hurt the inside of the dist cap or the points for that matter. Spray it down and the inside of the dist and don't wipe it off. If it cures the problem the dist may have a crack you can't see. If it does then throw it away and feel free to wipe everything else down.

One more off the wall suggestion is to take a peice of copper wire and screw it under a bolt on the engine anywhere. Attach the other end to the distributor any where you can find some clean metal. Just keep it off the terminal post connecting to the points. This will make sure you are not loosing the ground to the distributor causing a weak spark or miss. I have seen this problem but ususally it just doesn't start.

The next thing would be to check the insulator that goes thru the distributor housing and see if when it gets warm the metal lug is shorting against the housing.

What is the voltage at the primary side of the coil running at?

Are the distributor bushings wobbled out?

Is that coil wire a carbon wire?

You say you have an electrical fuel pump. Is there a flexable rubber hose on the intake side of this pump that is sucking shut? Just because there is fuel in the 'see thru' filter', does not mean it is moving anywhere.

Is the fuel tank cap vent open?

Some more ideas,

Allan

I agree with you. That backfiring, in my opinion, is the key to this whole puzzle.

Allan

Reminds me of a story told to me once...A bunch of guys were just finishing up a days work on a railroad section gang and most were standing around one car with the hood up that wouldn't start. No one positively identifying the problem. Coming by was a fellow that never drove, always rode with someone else and knew absolutely nothing about the mechanics of an automobile. One fellow said "Bob, what's the matter with it"? Bob never missed a step as he headed for his ride and commented "she needs a new commencer". That story is probably 40 years old and still going. I guess we need Bob to walk by your tractor. Fred OH

I'm not familiar with your tractor at all, so please bear with me.

Is that thing still backfiring when you try to start it after it has quits?

Also, back away from the trees for a minute so that you can see the forest: It only takes three things for an engine to run. A fuel/air mixture, a spark for the ignition, and compression.

What is missing when it quits? What is not there? Is it fuel it lacks, is it the compression, or is it the spark?

I still say that the backfiring upon trying to restart is telling you that there is a problem in the ignition system somewhere. It is trying to run, but can't; the spark is coming in at the wrong cycle and is producing that backfire.

How about the iginition switch?

Trying to help as I know you are frustrated, but remember, it is just a chunk of iron and there is a root cause there somewhere.

Allan

We're getting there.

That big of a backfire tells me we are getting fuel and a lot of it....the exhaust is full of it, in fact (hence, the explosion).

I am convinced that this problem is ignition related, but it could conceivably be a component, which is not even related.

For example, many years ago, I had a customer whose car would quit whenever he was going down hill.

To make a long story short, the little spring in front of the contact disk in the starter solenoid had broken in two. When the car tilted nose down, the little spring was shorting out the 12v bypass wire to the coil (contact) and thereby killing his ignition.

You’ve definitely got a head-scratcher going on here.

If it were mine, I would put a VOM across that distributor wire to ground and watch what the voltage does when the tractor quits, then also with the subsequent restart attempt.

I just think you are losing ignition.

Allan