Ferguson 30 Problems

I have got good spark . Believe me , I know ! Theonly thing I am not sure of is the wiring of the plugs from the distributor cap .

When I bought it , it was wired this way when facing the motor from the distributor .....

Far left post to #1, Far right to # 4 , Near right to # 3 , Near left to # 2 .

Now my I & T manual says firing order is 1 3 4 2 .

The current setup does not in my mind match this .

How should it be hooked up ?

Any other ideas on the lack of power ?

By the way , she will also bog down if I try to climb a hill with the disk on the tractor but raised of the ground .

Thanks for the help and patience !

Ford Man

I tried Dennis' method and found that all of the plug wires were off by one post on the distributor . Dialed back in the carb and no more sputtering under load ! She pulls the disk great .

Thanks again for all of the help ! It may be pretty ugly with the blue and yellow paint job , but I really do love this tractor .

You guys saved me a lot of time , trouble and money !

Ford Man

I forgot to mention that I ran down the battery last night and did not have jumper cables or my booster pack in the truck . Will try changing the wires around in the morning .

When she was running with the original wiring hookup , I did find that there was no noticable drop in performance when I disconnected the wire to # 2 . I "checked" the compression with my thumb over the sparkplug hole and it seemed ok . At least I don't have a stuck valve or something worse .

All of the plugs are sparking pretty good also .

I will let you guys know what happens .

By the way , don't tell the guys on the N Board , but I think that once I get these problems worked out , I may like this tractor better than my Ford !

Ford Man

Paul

• Ferguson & Early MF Wiring Diagrams

I'm no genius, but this is the way I determine which wire goes where. Assuming you have the distributor timed somewhere near right and NOT 180 degrees off (same possible symptoms), take out ALL the plugs. Put your thumb tight over the number 1 spark plug hole (have a cool engine when you do this!!!). Have someone tap the starter switch until the compression on the cylinder blows your finger away from the hole. Stop the engine rotation as close to that happening as possible. It may be a little tough to stop it the first couple of times but you'll eventually get it close enough after a few trys. Having all the plugs out helps keep the engine rotation from rocking back when you let off the starter. If you have problems getting it to stop at the right spot, turn the engine over by rotating the fan - disconnect battery first to avoid the possiblity of an accidental starter activation ! You may have to press on the belt to tighten it and keep the pulley from slipping on it, but this works too. When you get that compression point, take off the dist cap and note where the rotor is pointing. The corresponding dist wire goes to number one. With the cap off, hit the starter again and note which way the dist turns (I tell you to do this as I can't remember - duh! - ccw I think). Once you know where #1 is and which way it turns, the next wire respective to the rotation would go to number 3, the next to #4 and the last one is to #2.

This method has always worked for me, even with V-8's - it's by no means hi-tech but it works.

You might also want to close up the adjusting screw in the carb to lean it up a little. Let the motor idle and turn the screw in slowly until the engine just starts to miss, then back it out 1/4 turn.

Hope this helps some.