Learn something new every day........

A year ago February, I bought an H Farmall for $400 on a consignment auction. I never could get it to run quite as smooth as it should. New points, condenser, spark plugs, distributor cap and plug wires, patched in a known good coil, had two different carbs on it, even replaced the intake gaskets and checked the valve lash. Nothing made any difference. So, I kinda put it on the back burner and decided I could always get $400 worth of parts out of it.

Today I pulled the distributor off of my M Farmall, housing and all, to clean it up, lube it, and replace the points and condenser. Started it up and it ran, but rough. My first hunch was correct, I'd screwed up and replaced the distributor with the drive gear off one cog. I got out the manual and replaced the distributor with the timing correct. The M then purred like it's supposed to.

Then lights came on. It dawned on me that when the M was running with the timing one cog off, it sounded just like that H I could never get to run right. The timing was the one thing I hadn't checked on the H. Popped the distributor off the H and put it back per the book with the timing correct and--voila! The H ran as smooth as it's supposed to, also.

Like I said, you learn something new every day!

Congratulations, sometimes it is the small stuff that kicks our butts. You will remember this one forever.

You didnt need to ghange the gear all you needed to do was loosen the dist and rotate thats how you set the timing not remove and change gears

I know that, but I figured the timing had been set properly to start with, and as I said I just put it together one cog off.

It's a good feeling, isn't it? Like Popper said, it's the small stuff that will get' ha.

It's an even better feeling to find problems by systematicly testing things until the problem is found instead by guess,by gosh and chunking parts at it until it's fixed. To tell the truth,I would hire more work done if I didn't have to pay someone to guess at the solution instead of knowing how to fix it the first time.

Probably why that H was on the consignment sale in the first place. Someone else had given up on it.

a little this and that..and a useable $400 H...congrats
like said, it'll always be in your head now...won't fool you again.

Master mechanics....lots of talent,
but more importantly...the hundreds of 'seen that', 'been there'
in their memory....makes them masters.

Good for you! A tooth off is an awful lot. Surprised that it wouldn't be so advanced or retarded that would either be back firing out the carb or exhaust. Just the same for you, good deal, and sounds like part of why got such a good deal. 400$ Great deal. Use them in good health.

Mark

Sometimes it is the little stuff that drives you nuts.

you did the correct thing, as yes you can rotate the dist to correct timing but the factory position is lost then. the correct dist position is so the little point screw on side be sitting at 3 oclock position from factory. one cog off and this puts it at 2 oclock or 4 oclock position.