Can't get tractor to run

You

I have a 1965 Ford 3000 gas. The tractor will turn over spit and sputter than shut off. I replaced the plugs and wires,points, cap, rotor, codensor, coil. I even cleaned and rebuilt Holley carburetor that was on it.

Not trying to be a smart butt, did you replace the fuel filter? And turn on the valve from the tank?

Water in gas?

When I took carb off I turned gas on and cranked engine fuel seemed to be coming out of the line pretty good. Cause at first I thought it may have been the fuel pump all along. This tractor is becoming a pain. Ran fine last year when I bought it.

I drained all fuel and put new fuel in it before starting it

Check for spark, sounds like it may be an ignition issue. Could be a bad condenser seems like a lot of people are having problems with new ones. I had a similar problem and it was actually in the switch

My next door neighbor had one of those Fords with a Holley carb. Never could get it to run right. I asked my old time carb guy about the Holley and he said throw it as far away from the tractor as you can and buy a replacement Zenith. Gonna cost you north of $500. He said he NEVER had any success at rebuilding a Holley. He did many Marvel Scheblers and Zeniths with great success. He is a retired toolmaker.

Did anything change after you did the ignition and carb work?

Revisit the ignition system. Be sure you have 1/4" consistent spark at each plug wire to ground, on the plug end, not just at the cap.

Check the distributor shaft for side play. If worn, the points won't stay set. It needs to have very little play.

Try the old condenser, they are known for being bad out of the box new. Same with the points, be sure they are making contact, everything is tight and properly wired. Compare all the replaced ignition components with the original, especially the rotor.

Get a clean glass and drain the carb into it. It should have a full bowl to begin with. Crank it for a few seconds, it should pump fuel through the carb and into the glass as a strem. If only a drip, or nothing, fuel is not making it to the carb.

Look at what was caught. If cloudy or water in the bottom, there is water in the tank. If gritty and rusty, the tank is contaminated and will need to come off and be washed out with E85.

A simple test of the valve train, remove the coil wire and ground it. Remove the air filter hose from the carb. Hold your hand tightly over the air inlet and crank the engine through. It should have strong steady vacuum, no back pulses. If there is fuel in the carb, your hand should be wet with gas.

Also check the air filter. See if it will run with it disconnected. It could be clogged with mud dobbers or mouse nests.

The Holley is VERY sensitive to float height, VERY. I got my brother's so it would run half way decent, but nearly impossible in the winter. Put a Zenith in its place and a completely different tractor. Try shutting the gas tank supply valve off and see if it will run on the bowl fuel, it may be choking out rich. I could run the Holley at fixed rpm by fine tuning the supply valve. Then took it apart and fussed with the float adjustment. It may be still on the sill in his garage. He won't be needing it any more. ALS.

First thing you need to do is learn simple trouble shooting and then parts NEVER the other way around or you compound the problem in most cases.
#1 check the you have a good blue/white spark at the center wire of the distributor cap and at all the plug wires. The spark has to jump a 1/4 inch gap or more.
#2 if the carb has a drain plug pull it an make sure you have a steady flow of gas that will fill a pint jar in less then 3 minutes.
#3 when was the last time you serviced the air cleaner??.

Post back what you find

Vellerius, welcome to the Yesterday?s Tractor forums. Please know I am not trying to make fun of
the amount of mechanical knowledge you have by any of my answers. I simply have no idea at all
what level of knowledge you are at. It sounds to me that you are experiencing a lack of proper air
to fuel flow into your engine. I wonder if by chance the float in the carb is not assembled properly
or is bent or set wrong minimizing fuel flow into the carb. I have not worked on a Ford 3000 but
most tractors have a drain plug on the carb. If you pull that you can see how much fuel is being
delivered to the carb. If you say it has a fuel pump then you will have to pull the plug and crank the
engine to determine if there is a proper amount of fuel passing the needle and seat to supply the
engine requirements. Not sure if you are familiar with English measurement, but a half cup or so
of fuel in 30 seconds should at least let the engine run more than a few seconds. If all that is
produced is a small dribble you will have to determine what is limiting the fuel delivery. Best of
luck!

Will it fire With a sniff of ether or brake clean

ernied and johnlobb, I agree about the Holly carbs.

Not very often one whips me, but that one did!

No happy medium, flooding or starving.

Finally give up and put on a Zenith.

Ran better than it ever did!

Old is right, troubleshoot first, buy parts after you find out what is wrong!

Did you pull the drain plug on the carburetor to check fuel flow?

Thanks for the input, to be honest this is my first tractor. I will troubleshoot all the areas you suggested, and get back to y'all.

M Nut from this board gave me the same advice about switching to a Zenith- we both have the same model Ford TLB. Got one on this site for about $350. Runs fine now.

According to my manual that wire is supposed to be a ground wire. So I'm now thinking that was my issue all along.

Now to find a replacement ground wire, one of these days I'll get this tractor running again

Still seem to be having spark issues, it seems like battery is working harder than it should on the start. I'm thinking its time to just rewire tractor, the wires are in bad shape anyways.

(quoted from post at 07:39:47 05/13/19) Still seem to be having spark issues, it seems like battery is working harder than it should on the start. I'm thinking its time to just rewire tractor, the wires are in bad shape anyways.

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Vellerius, what tells you that it is having spark issues and that the battery is working hard? Earlier you said that "fuel seemed to be coming out of the line pretty good." I don't know of any place where the fuel comes out under normal conditions.If you could share what you are seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling, that leads you to say that things seem, guys here could use that real information to help you.