Rockfootball47
Bronze Member
I have been browsing your forums for the past few months while I have been working on rebuilding/tuning up a 1947 Ford 8N and found a lot of useful information, and am finally at a point where I need your help.
That past few months my friend and I have replaced the radiator, radiator hoses, fan belt, spark plugs, carburator, muffler, oil pressure gauge, wiring harness, battery, starter solenoid, all engine gaskets, sediment bowl, fuel line, ignition, motor oil, oil filter, transmission fluid and tuned up the distributor. Note that this is still a standard 6V tractor with a generator. This weekend we were finally at a point when we were ready to start it, and of course nothing happened. Confirming there was voltage to the Starter Solenoid we decided to try a jumping method across the starter solenoid that I read about online, and was told to do by the shop owner where we had been buying some of the tractor parts. This allowed the starter/engine to turn for a good 30 seconds with no starting until we noticed water leaking from the gap between the head and the engine block, so of course we stopped. After some investigation we realized that I didn't tighten the header nuts to spec (60-70ft lbs I believe). This allowed the water in the cooling system to leak everywhere. About 1 gallon of the 3 leaked out. It got in the carburetor and cylinders. Trust me I am still kicking myself for this stupid mistake. Never again will I not check a torque spec when working on a engine. :thumbsup: After talking to my friends dad we removed the header and removed all of the water from the cylinders and cleaned them with carb cleaner to ensure dryness.
We reassembled everything and tried again, but it still wouldn't start. We referred to the ye ole' Fuel/Air/Spark formula and discovered that we had fuel and air, but there was no spark. We checked all spark plugs by grounding them against the block to which none of them sparked. We basically already assume something is wrong with our wiring or the starter button since we had to "jump" it across the starter solenoid. Come to think of it that also explains why we found another push button on the instrument panel that we couldn't account for during teardown. But it was rotted away on the connector side and it didn't show up in our diagrams so we didn't worry about it.
We have no idea where to go from here. My only assumption is the distributor since we aren't getting spark. Since we did a complete tuneup of it before this happened we can't be sure, but don't know how to check.
Any help is appreciated!
That past few months my friend and I have replaced the radiator, radiator hoses, fan belt, spark plugs, carburator, muffler, oil pressure gauge, wiring harness, battery, starter solenoid, all engine gaskets, sediment bowl, fuel line, ignition, motor oil, oil filter, transmission fluid and tuned up the distributor. Note that this is still a standard 6V tractor with a generator. This weekend we were finally at a point when we were ready to start it, and of course nothing happened. Confirming there was voltage to the Starter Solenoid we decided to try a jumping method across the starter solenoid that I read about online, and was told to do by the shop owner where we had been buying some of the tractor parts. This allowed the starter/engine to turn for a good 30 seconds with no starting until we noticed water leaking from the gap between the head and the engine block, so of course we stopped. After some investigation we realized that I didn't tighten the header nuts to spec (60-70ft lbs I believe). This allowed the water in the cooling system to leak everywhere. About 1 gallon of the 3 leaked out. It got in the carburetor and cylinders. Trust me I am still kicking myself for this stupid mistake. Never again will I not check a torque spec when working on a engine. :thumbsup: After talking to my friends dad we removed the header and removed all of the water from the cylinders and cleaned them with carb cleaner to ensure dryness.
We reassembled everything and tried again, but it still wouldn't start. We referred to the ye ole' Fuel/Air/Spark formula and discovered that we had fuel and air, but there was no spark. We checked all spark plugs by grounding them against the block to which none of them sparked. We basically already assume something is wrong with our wiring or the starter button since we had to "jump" it across the starter solenoid. Come to think of it that also explains why we found another push button on the instrument panel that we couldn't account for during teardown. But it was rotted away on the connector side and it didn't show up in our diagrams so we didn't worry about it.
We have no idea where to go from here. My only assumption is the distributor since we aren't getting spark. Since we did a complete tuneup of it before this happened we can't be sure, but don't know how to check.
Any help is appreciated!