1956 Ferguson To 35

   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #1  

Gary Mickle

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
8
Location
Lakeville, Ohio
Tractor
MF 135
I have a 1956 Ferguson To 35, and I'm having an electrical problem. I have been having problems with the points fouling up after it ran for a while, so I went ahead and gave it a tune up, (new plugs, points, condenser, cap, and rotor). That helped a little, but the same thing started happening again. To me it seems the spark is awful week and sporadic. I had it out the other day to do some tilling and it started OK, but ran a little rough, and eventually died in about 15 minutes. I started checking things out but I couldn't get it started again and eventually ran down the battery. I've been through the carburetor and fuel system, everything's OK in the at area. I checked the spark, and again it was weak to me and at times not at all. Is it a coil issue, ignition module problem, or what? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks - Gary
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #2  
I'd finish the tune up with a new coil and wires. Are your sure the gap on your points isn't too wide.
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Gaps are all to specs, and plug wires are fairly new. I checked the spark at the distributor points, and that's where it appears weak and not at all.
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #4  
I have a 1956 Ferguson To 35, and I'm having an electrical problem. I have been having problems with the points fouling up after it ran for a while, so I went ahead and gave it a tune up, (new plugs, points, condenser, cap, and rotor). That helped a little, but the same thing started happening again. To me it seems the spark is awful week and sporadic. I had it out the other day to do some tilling and it started OK, but ran a little rough, and eventually died in about 15 minutes. I started checking things out but I couldn't get it started again and eventually ran down the battery. I've been through the carburetor and fuel system, everything's OK in the at area. I checked the spark, and again it was weak to me and at times not at all. Is it a coil issue, ignition module problem, or what? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks - Gary

When you say "I have been having problems with the points fouling up after it ran for a while....", do you mean the points are burned? if so, they are set too close, you have a 6V coil (1.6 ohms primary resistance) in a 12v electrical system without a ballast resistor, or your voltage reguator is keeping the system voltage too high. All of these will result in a a pimary curent greater than about 4 amps max and will cause the points to burn. A faulty condensor can also cause some arcing at the points and cause them to burn.

Many times a conversion from a 6V system to a 12v system causes this problem because the original 6v coil is used without a current limiting resistor or the coil is not replaced with a 12v coil (3.2 ohms primary resistance) Like NAPA IC14-SB.
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks for the info. I haven't had this tractor a long time and it is converted to a 12 volt system. I need to do some more investigating and check the coil. When the points fouled before there was a carbon buildup on them. I don't have that problem now since the tune up, but just the weak spark or no spark. I know it needs to be timed better, so I'll do some more investigating. Thanks again for the input. - Gary
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #6  
"When the points fouled before there was a carbon buildup on them."Carbon build up on the breaker points??? Are you getting oil in the distributor? if so, make sure the crankcase vent tube is not clogged.
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35
  • Thread Starter
#7  
There's no oil in the distributor. I should of stated that the points would just foul up with a little bit of carbon between them, (which I assume is carbon), and I'd just take a piece of fine sandpaper folded and run between them a few times to clear them. Why they were fouling in the first place, I don't know, other than caused by a weak spark?. As I said, I haven't had this tractor a long time and ran it for any period of time to find all the bugs it may have that I wasn't told about when I bought it. It doesn't use oil, fluids are all good and clean, no leaks that I can find so far, and the ones that had it before me had supposedly had gone through it and then gave it a new paint job. I don't know if that's when it was converted to 12 volt system and nobody has used it enough, for the problem I've been having, to show up or what. I'm going to go ahead a put a new coil on it and see if that works, and go from there. I appreciate your input. Thanks again - Gary
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #8  
Have you checked the other things I listed in my first post? You want to find the root cause of the problem before you start thowing parts at it.

You might try replacing the condensor also. They're cheap and the modern ones often fail and there is no easy way to test them. Try that first and then replace the coil.

Make sure that there is not an excess of grease on the cam. It can get thrown off on to the points and foul them. if you use breaker point grease it should not be a problem but you only need a little dab.
 
   / 1956 Ferguson To 35 #10  
so far my guess is that you are running a 6v coil on 12v and burning the points. the sanding has ruined them by removign the hard coating meaning they will pit faster now.

get the correct coil.. napa ic14sb...

There's no oil in the distributor. I should of stated that the points would just foul up with a little bit of carbon between them, (which I assume is carbon), and I'd just take a piece of fine sandpaper folded and run between them a few times to clear them. Why they were fouling in the first place, I don't know, other than caused by a weak spark?. As I said, I haven't had this tractor a long time and ran it for any period of time to find all the bugs it may have that I wasn't told about when I bought it. It doesn't use oil, fluids are all good and clean, no leaks that I can find so far, and the ones that had it before me had supposedly had gone through it and then gave it a new paint job. I don't know if that's when it was converted to 12 volt system and nobody has used it enough, for the problem I've been having, to show up or what. I'm going to go ahead a put a new coil on it and see if that works, and go from there. I appreciate your input. Thanks again - Gary
 
 
Top