Is my coil or electronic ignition bad?

Mongolas

New User
I have been working on my 1949 front mount Ford 8n for months, trying to figure out how to get it started. I threw too much money at it early on. I decided to get a spark tester to just rule that out. I ended up not having a spark. After some digging around, I ended up going with a completely new distributor all fully assembled with electronic ignition already installed from a different website. I got it installed earlier today, and tested for spark and bam! I got a spark.

I put the hood back on and filled the tank with some gas and tried cranking it. After choking it a few times, I got it to sputter a little bit, and I could actually smell exhaust. After about a minute of trying to get it to start (I could tell it wanted to go), the battery started going dead, which made me think that's why it wasn't starting all the way. So I charged my battery for about 4 hours and reinstalled it. Tried starting it again, and it turned over, struggling, like it was trying to start. Then I just get nothing but the starter. I started getting paranoid and checked for spark with my spark tester and I got nothing!!

Did I fry my electronic ignition? Or my coil? I have no clue what is doing this. I know my wiring is right, minus the second resistor, since everyone says I don't need it with electronic ignition, and all it does it prevent the points from burning up faster, which I don't have points. I've really tried getting this going by myself, and don't want to take it to someone since they'd charge me too much. I mainly bought it because it came with a ford 800 series front loader on it, but wanted the tractor too, even though I've decided I want to eventually commit to a Ford 860 later on. I paid 1200 for the tractor with the loader, and they delivered it for free from about an hour away, so I feel like it's a great deal if I can get it running.

So far I've wasted about 50+ dollars on new distributor related parts, then 250 for the complete distributor with electronic ignition from a different website, and a few gaskets, fuel line, and sediment bowl, as well as a 70 dollar carb rebuild kit (which is leaking, but will worry about that after I get spark back).

I told myself even if I end up putting in 1000 into this tractor, I still feel like it's a good deal given how hard it seems to be to find a front loader.

Anyways, does anyone have any idea what I can do?
 
(quoted from post at 03:20:38 10/13/21) I have been working on my 1949 front mount Ford 8n for months, trying to figure out how to get it started. I threw too much money at it early on. I decided to get a spark tester to just rule that out. I ended up not having a spark. After some digging around, I ended up going with a completely new distributor all fully assembled with electronic ignition already installed from a different website. I got it installed earlier today, and tested for spark and bam! I got a spark.

I put the hood back on and filled the tank with some gas and tried cranking it. After choking it a few times, I got it to sputter a little bit, and I could actually smell exhaust. After about a minute of trying to get it to start (I could tell it wanted to go), the battery started going dead, which made me think that's why it wasn't starting all the way. So I charged my battery for about 4 hours and reinstalled it. Tried starting it again, and it turned over, struggling, like it was trying to start. Then I just get nothing but the starter. I started getting paranoid and checked for spark with my spark tester and I got nothing!!

Did I fry my electronic ignition? Or my coil? I have no clue what is doing this. I know my wiring is right, minus the second resistor, since everyone says I don't need it with electronic ignition, and all it does it prevent the points from burning up faster, which I don't have points. I've really tried getting this going by myself, and don't want to take it to someone since they'd charge me too much. I mainly bought it because it came with a ford 800 series front loader on it, but wanted the tractor too, even though I've decided I want to eventually commit to a Ford 860 later on. I paid 1200 for the tractor with the loader, and they delivered it for free from about an hour away, so I feel like it's a great deal if I can get it running.

So far I've wasted about 50+ dollars on new distributor related parts, then 250 for the complete distributor with electronic ignition from a different website, and a few gaskets, fuel line, and sediment bowl, as well as a 70 dollar carb rebuild kit (which is leaking, but will worry about that after I get spark back).

I told myself even if I end up putting in 1000 into this tractor, I still feel like it's a good deal given how hard it seems to be to find a front loader.

Anyways, does anyone have any idea what I can do?
6v or 12v? pos or neg ground? front distributor mounted coil or remotely mounted coil? number of EI unit?
 
(quoted from post at 03:20:38 10/13/21)Anyways, does anyone have any idea what I can do?
Yes, first calm down.
Next, don't spend another penny on unneeded components, diagnose what's wrong, then fix that

We can help you figure out what's wrong. We need more info though, that's why jmor asked what he did. So start by answering those questions. If you don't know some of the answers, just ask.

Couple things:
Weak or run down batteries will give starting problems. The cranking over of the engine takes a lot of power, so often a weak battery does not have enough juice left over to fire the ignition circuit.

[i:8e3179e4f7][u:8e3179e4f7][b:8e3179e4f7]I know my wiring is right,[/b:8e3179e4f7][/u:8e3179e4f7][/i:8e3179e4f7] minus the second resistor, since everyone says I don't need it with electronic ignition, and all it does it prevent the points from burning up faster, which I don't have points
This statement is contradictory.
Having any resistor, or the correct amount of resistance in the ignition circuit has nothing to do with having an electronic ignition. The primary reason is to limit amperage to the coil.
Depending on exactly what tractor and ignition system you have, you may not need any resistors, or may need 1 or more.
 

It's 12 volts, negative ground, and front distributor mounted coil.

Am I able to post links to other websites? I can show you exactly what I got, but it's not from yesterdays tractors, and I'm starting to regret that now. Their customer service is TERRIBLE, and it took 3 days to get an all caps response when all I wanted was some sort of PDF on where the wire went for the electronic ignition.

One thing I forgot to mention, but didn't think it was an issue since I got spark for a while, was when I was mounting the wiring block solid to the frame, just behind the steering column, the wire that goes to the distributor touched the positive terminal of the battery and made a clicky noise. I was worried it fried it, but once I got it all wired up and started cranking to test for spark, I had a spark and it was trying to start, which was more progress than I had ever made, so I forgot about it. But just so there isn't anything missing for the diagnosis, I figured I would let you guys know. Thanks for the responses, this has been a frustrating endeavor for several weeks now.
 
(quoted from post at 17:07:04 10/13/21)
It's 12 volts, negative ground, and front distributor mounted coil.

Am I able to post links to other websites? I can show you exactly what I got, but it's not from yesterdays tractors, and I'm starting to regret that now. Their customer service is TERRIBLE, and it took 3 days to get an all caps response when all I wanted was some sort of PDF on where the wire went for the electronic ignition.

One thing I forgot to mention, but didn't think it was an issue since I got spark for a while, was when I was mounting the wiring block solid to the frame, just behind the steering column, the wire that goes to the distributor touched the positive terminal of the battery and made a clicky noise. I was worried it fried it, but once I got it all wired up and started cranking to test for spark, I had a spark and it was trying to start, which was more progress than I had ever made, so I forgot about it. But just so there isn't anything missing for the diagnosis, I figured I would let you guys know. Thanks for the responses, this has been a frustrating endeavor for several weeks now.
ouching the wire that goes to distributor to the pos battery terminal should have done no harm, as it receives battery power via ign sw when all connected properly. Most popular EI is Pertronix, even when sold by others, sometimes under their own re-seller's label. Genesse, Tisco, etc. sell EI and may or may not be Pertronix. Without knowing what you have and your installation instructions, I am almost helpless to offer assistance. In Modern view under "e-mail" near "profile" on this message, you can send me a YT message E-mail from which I can capture your e-mail address & then we can exchange documents & photos.

This post was edited by JMOR on 10/13/2021 at 02:34 pm.
 

I used the wires that the website recommended for the electronic ignition. When I opened the box, somewhere on a piece of paper it says something along the lines of using braided wire spark plug wires.
 

I sent you a message I think. Not sure if it went through. I charged the battery 100% to rule out a low voltage issue and still no spark. What could have happened between taking the battery out, charging it, and putting it back in and not getting a spark? I'm new to tractors, and I hate working on cars, but was excited to tackle a Ford 8n because of how easy it is to get to all the parts, which is the main reason I don't like working on cars being so difficult to take most parts out of them.
 
I received no e-mail. Try making you e-mail visible to me . In Modern View this is accomplished under 'profile" at upper right.
In Classic view, you simply input it in box when composing a reply message. I willthen use yt safe mail to contact you.
 

I sent you a few more e-mails with pictures. Let know what what else I can send, I'm taking pictures with my ipad, so it's kind of hard to get into the tighter spots, but can do what I can, just let me know. And thank you!
 

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