efussander
New User
Hi all. I'm a first time poster, long time lurker and many of you have really helped me in the past without knowing it.
My grandfather had a 1953 Ford Jubilee and used it for years on his farm in Illinois. It was special to him so he took it with him to Florida when he retired. He passed away a couple years ago and left his tractor to my father. It has kind of become my personal project as I have a lot of special memories with this tractor and I am trying to restore it to its former glory. Last year I got it all cleaned up and mostly repainted. I redid all the electrical and replaced many gaskets that weren't holding grease or were worn out. I cleaned the transmission (as there was some serious gunk in there) and replaced all fluids. I replaced the radiator and the gas tank as well because both had corrosion. Unfortunately I live half a world away from the tractor as the tractor is in Alabama and I live in New Zealand. Therefore, the tractor sat for about a year until I came back to visit (now). I resumed work on it but there was an issue. When I left it a year ago, it was running pretty well. When I came back, it wouldn't start. I was a good boy and poured a bit of SAE 90 down each of the cylinders and let it sit, but it wouldn't start. So let me take you through what I have done to try to remedy that (many of these things needed to be done anyway):
1. Re-ran the fuel line and put an inline filter in place.
2. Replaced the worn fuel bowl assembly.
3. Replaced the spark plugs.
4. Rebuilt the distributor - New leads in correct firing order 1,2,4,3; New cap; New rotor; Cleaned distributor bowl; New condenser; New points with correct spacing
5. Tested pressure.
6. Correctly timed the engine.
7. Replaced battery and battery cables (corrosion).
8. Replaced starter solenoid/relay.
9. Made sure air filter and breather oil was clean.
10. Drained and replaced the fuel (used non-ethanol as always).
11. Last year I replaced all wiring including key switch and ingnition.
None of that was able to get the engine started. The next thing I looked at was the carb. Once I took it apart there were so many things wrong with it. The float valve was damaged, needles bent, holes plugged, gaskets missing. It was a wonder that it ran before. I bought an aftermarket M/S carb which looks identical to the Marvel Schebler that was on there except it is made of some sort of white metal instead of cast iron. I set the float and adjusted the needles to the recommended bench adjustments and gave it a go.
The engine started right up with a little choke but it started at maybe 50 RPMs. Yes you read that correctly. It was idling (barely) at like 50-75 RPMs with the throttle about a quarter inch open which is where I usually started it before. It was weird because it wasn't fast enough to cut out the starter which is somewhere around 275 RPMs. Well I kept opening throttle and it would sort of stumble up to higher RPMs and smooth out. To get it to 450 RPMs which is where it idled before, the throttle is about half open!
Opening the throttle all the way only gets me to about 1400 and there is quite a big dead zone at the end where opening the throttle more doesn't increase the RPMs.
It does not change throttle settings smoothly at all. It backfires a lot when moving down which it never did before. When moving up, it does so very slowly. When it is running it does sound smooth though.
I know the carb needs to be adjusted more but I can't figure out what I need to do. I know the idle (air) needle is lean in, rich out and the main adjustment is opposite. But I don't know from these symptoms how I should be adjusting it. Also, I can't imagine that the needles could change it enough to require half open throttle to get 450 RPMs. My max RPM as mentioned is only 1400 whereas my high-idle before was somewhere around 2200.
The other thing is that it seems like there is no power. When it is sitting idling at 1200 RPMs it is running fine. When I put it in first with no attachments/load and sitting on nearly level ground and let out the clutch SUPER slow, the RPMs decrease to about 300 and then it stalls before we even start to move. And no, there's nothing in front of the wheels, and yes, I checked that the parking brake isn't on.
Do any of you kind chaps have ideas? I tried to provide as much information up front to reduce the number of questions you might have, but I'm sure that I've forgotten something. Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks very much in advance.
- Ethan
My grandfather had a 1953 Ford Jubilee and used it for years on his farm in Illinois. It was special to him so he took it with him to Florida when he retired. He passed away a couple years ago and left his tractor to my father. It has kind of become my personal project as I have a lot of special memories with this tractor and I am trying to restore it to its former glory. Last year I got it all cleaned up and mostly repainted. I redid all the electrical and replaced many gaskets that weren't holding grease or were worn out. I cleaned the transmission (as there was some serious gunk in there) and replaced all fluids. I replaced the radiator and the gas tank as well because both had corrosion. Unfortunately I live half a world away from the tractor as the tractor is in Alabama and I live in New Zealand. Therefore, the tractor sat for about a year until I came back to visit (now). I resumed work on it but there was an issue. When I left it a year ago, it was running pretty well. When I came back, it wouldn't start. I was a good boy and poured a bit of SAE 90 down each of the cylinders and let it sit, but it wouldn't start. So let me take you through what I have done to try to remedy that (many of these things needed to be done anyway):
1. Re-ran the fuel line and put an inline filter in place.
2. Replaced the worn fuel bowl assembly.
3. Replaced the spark plugs.
4. Rebuilt the distributor - New leads in correct firing order 1,2,4,3; New cap; New rotor; Cleaned distributor bowl; New condenser; New points with correct spacing
5. Tested pressure.
6. Correctly timed the engine.
7. Replaced battery and battery cables (corrosion).
8. Replaced starter solenoid/relay.
9. Made sure air filter and breather oil was clean.
10. Drained and replaced the fuel (used non-ethanol as always).
11. Last year I replaced all wiring including key switch and ingnition.
None of that was able to get the engine started. The next thing I looked at was the carb. Once I took it apart there were so many things wrong with it. The float valve was damaged, needles bent, holes plugged, gaskets missing. It was a wonder that it ran before. I bought an aftermarket M/S carb which looks identical to the Marvel Schebler that was on there except it is made of some sort of white metal instead of cast iron. I set the float and adjusted the needles to the recommended bench adjustments and gave it a go.
The engine started right up with a little choke but it started at maybe 50 RPMs. Yes you read that correctly. It was idling (barely) at like 50-75 RPMs with the throttle about a quarter inch open which is where I usually started it before. It was weird because it wasn't fast enough to cut out the starter which is somewhere around 275 RPMs. Well I kept opening throttle and it would sort of stumble up to higher RPMs and smooth out. To get it to 450 RPMs which is where it idled before, the throttle is about half open!
Opening the throttle all the way only gets me to about 1400 and there is quite a big dead zone at the end where opening the throttle more doesn't increase the RPMs.
It does not change throttle settings smoothly at all. It backfires a lot when moving down which it never did before. When moving up, it does so very slowly. When it is running it does sound smooth though.
I know the carb needs to be adjusted more but I can't figure out what I need to do. I know the idle (air) needle is lean in, rich out and the main adjustment is opposite. But I don't know from these symptoms how I should be adjusting it. Also, I can't imagine that the needles could change it enough to require half open throttle to get 450 RPMs. My max RPM as mentioned is only 1400 whereas my high-idle before was somewhere around 2200.
The other thing is that it seems like there is no power. When it is sitting idling at 1200 RPMs it is running fine. When I put it in first with no attachments/load and sitting on nearly level ground and let out the clutch SUPER slow, the RPMs decrease to about 300 and then it stalls before we even start to move. And no, there's nothing in front of the wheels, and yes, I checked that the parking brake isn't on.
Do any of you kind chaps have ideas? I tried to provide as much information up front to reduce the number of questions you might have, but I'm sure that I've forgotten something. Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks very much in advance.
- Ethan