Farmall H running issues

Harp87 · Mar 27, 2012

Hi I have a 1942 Farmall H that I just purchased about 5 days ago. Today I was out pulling a 2 bottom plow that came with the tractor. While pulling about 3/4 of the way into my first pass, the tractor suddenly began to lose power and then began to sputter and stalled out about 45 seconds later. From this point on it was a nightmare. We would finally get the tractor started and it would run like it was starving for fuel kind of acting like it wanted to die out for a couple seconds then run good for about 10 seconds. We played with the carb screw adjustments a lil and that seemed to fix it just driving around and then hooked back to the plow and bam did the same thing. From then on it would start and run a lil bit then keep stalling out. Checked the fuel sedement bowl where the gas turns on and it was clean. The tractor has great gas flow to the carb. Not sure what the issue may be. Leaning towards the carb. The guy I bought it off of said that he has had it 20 years and only brushhogged a couple acres and plowed his garden. Im 2 bottoming 7 acres of basically virgin ground. Any pointers are helpful! Thanks. Nick

Yooper Farmall · Mar 27, 2012

Just a wild guess, but my H did the same thing a year ago, it ended up being the coil. Good luck, chasing these gremlins can be frustrating.

DeltaRed · Mar 27, 2012

Did you pull the drain plug from the carb?Let gas run for several minutes.The needle/seat or the in-carb screen may be pluged

Janicholson · Mar 27, 2012

Pull off a spark plug wire just as it dies and put another plug in its place grounded to the engine. Crank it with the starter motor. If the plug fires with a crisp blue spark, it is probably fuel related issues. If poor yellow and thready, it needs ignition help.

If it is coil and points system, see if the coil is way hot. if so it is bad.

If it is magneto, the coil of the mag could be going bad, but setting the points, (.013", but be sure to be careful to keep the little gears correctly timed or it will not start till they are!) might be needed. A condenser and points might be needed to tune it up.

Carb problems are often related to fuel flow to the carb, or plugged passages in the carb. Tilting the tractor in the furrow could put flakes of trash in the fuel intake to the sediment bowl. Jim

riverbend · Mar 28, 2012

Has any thing, other than adjustment, been done to the carb lately ? I had an issue like that after rebuilding the carb on my H. A crumb from the new packing for the main jet had come loose and was blocking the fuel flow.

Greg

JRSutton · Mar 28, 2012

I find the best thing to do in a case like that is to try choking it while it's having trouble - maybe not fully - play around to see if there's a point where it runs better.

It's an instant test, and you don't even have to get off the tractor.

If it runs better, it's almost certainly a carb problem. And almost certainly a problem of fuel starvation - probably from blockage.

If that doesn't work it doesn't prove anything, but it at least hints that it may not be carb related.

Others have offered good ideas of where to look at other variables, but just wanted to throw this out there as it could help you in the future.

CNKS · Mar 28, 2012

Very common lean mixture. If it indeed has good gas flow--from your description it sounds like you have intermitent flow--remove and disassemble the carb, soak it in true carb cleaner overnight and put a new kit in it. Also, you said you "played" with the carb adjustments, that doesn't work. The proper way is to turn the main adj (bottom of carb) in until it sputters, then out until smooth. Adjust idle speed so that it doesn't stall, adjust idle mixtur by turning in and out until smooth. Repeat main and idle adjustments until you can yank the throttle back until it accelerates smoothly. It needs to run on the lean side, not rich.

Harp87 · Mar 28, 2012

Thank you all for the great info. I talked to a shop today and they say they think it is the coil. So im going to attempt that and see how it does. When I opened the pitcock on the carb for the fuel it had great fuel flow. So he thinks its the coil overheating. So that will be step one. Never really changed anything like that so I hope that I do it right. Thanks for all the info everyone!

rustyfarmall · Mar 28, 2012

(quoted from post at 09:42:26 03/28/12) Thank you all for the great info. I talked to a shop today and they say they think it is the coil. So im going to attempt that and see how it does. When I opened the pitcock on the carb for the fuel it had great fuel flow. So he thinks its the coil overheating. So that will be step one. Never really changed anything like that so I hope that I do it right. Thanks for all the info everyone!

The 2 small terminals on the coil are marked + and -. Pay attention to which is which and install the new coil the same way. Other than that, it is a simple nuts and bolts operation.

Fullers Farmalls · Mar 28, 2012

This is another thing that affected my H one time. Check the oil in the air cleaner. Make sure its clean. If it isn't lean it and the sludge out of it and refill to the line with 30 weight. It should be done anyway but it could help. Just my $.02

Farmall H running issues

Harp87

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Yooper Farmall

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DeltaRed

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Janicholson

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riverbend

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JRSutton

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CNKS

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Harp87

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rustyfarmall

Well-known Member

Fullers Farmalls

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