1956 640 No fire!

Water63 · Jul 31, 2010

I have a 1956 640 that is giving me fits. It ran last week and has been in the barn and has not sat out in the rain. It cranks over but no fire. The tractor was restored last July.
Here is what I have done so far. Battery voltage at the battery 6.4 volts, at the coil 5.6 replaced the switch. Battery voltage at coil now 6.4 new cap, new rotor, new points, new condenser, new plugs new coil and new wires. Points set at .024 distributor shaft does not appear to be loose or have any wiggle to the shaft. The distributor is original but this tractor has run great up till now. I mowed 10 acres with it last week and it ran great.

Is it common for a distributor to go bad in these tractors? I have not had much time with Ford tractors.

Any help?

souNdguy · Jul 31, 2010

clean points with some grocery sack paper or white construction paper then regap at .025 on the high side of the lobe.

use a test lamp or ohm meter to see if they are opening and closing.

can use an ohm meter to check for a short at the feedthru insulator on the side of the dizzy as well.

post back

soundguy

old · Jul 31, 2010

Point can work good one day then the next not. Do as Sound says and see it it helps. Many small things can happen in just one day that will make you loose spark and some are easy to fix and other not. Things like the weather play games with engines and a simple thing can make aguy go crazy trying to fix them unless you have done it for decades like some of us have and even then we can climb the walls

Jim.UT · Jul 31, 2010

I left my 850 uncovered in a heavy rain once and later found 1/2" of water pooled in the bottom of the distributor under the breaker plate. I had to remove the entire breaker plate (round piece of metal the points are mounted to) and sop up the water with a rag. After I get everything dried out real good, it fired right up.

36 Coupe · Aug 1, 2010

Use the tractors ammeter to see if the points are opening and closing.Points run hot and form oxides that insulate the point surfaces.Paper wont clean that off.If the ammeter flicks from 0 to 5 amps when cranking theres no need to clean points.I ran the tractor out of gas yesterday and the gas refused to flow again.Saw the air gap in the sediment bowl.Loosned it, gas flowed but did not fill carb.A shot for starting fluid got it running.This happened to my Model A Ford when it ran out of gas.I dont know why this happens but will give trouble on all gravity feed systems.

Water63 · Aug 1, 2010

Alright it is running now Basic check for a tune up and I missed it thank you Soundguy. The feed through was shorted. It has a everything new in it now as I said before everything is new cap,rotor,point, cond,wires,& plugs so it will begood for anther year.

Thanks again!!

souNdguy · Aug 2, 2010

ahh but if the feedthru insulator is shorted, the ammeter will flip from 0-whatever back and forth as if the points were working. that's why a visual inspection is needed.

soundguy

36 Coupe · Aug 3, 2010

Ammeter will not flip back and forth if the insulator is shorted,it will be steady at 5 amps.Inspecting the points will usually lose the rotor clip.

1956 640 No fire!

Water63

New User

souNdguy

Well-known Member

old

Well-known Member

Jim.UT

Well-known Member

36 Coupe

Well-known Member

Water63

New User

souNdguy

Well-known Member

36 Coupe

Well-known Member

Similar threads