Trying to Start Farmall H

Hey Folks,

My buddy is currently away at Basic Training for the Army and I would love to surprise him when he comes home for Christmas by having his H running. It ran last about 2 years ago when it crapped out on him while raking hay. In a hurry to get finished raking he parked the tractor and grabbed the fancy cab tractor to finish raking. Well the tractor has been sitting in the barn ever since due to him changing jobs, having baby, etc., he never had time to get it running again or even trouble shoot it for that matter.

So I'm starting with nothing to go off of other then that I can remember him complaining about the tractor not charging and he thought the points were maybe going bad too. So I would like some advice. Here is what I've done so far...first thing I did was change the oil in it. I looked over the electrical and the wires seem to all have good connections and no breaks anywhere. Plugs seem to be fairly new in it, haven't actually pulled them out yet. Put the charger on the battery, (yes its going to need a new battery) but I did manage to get the tractor to turn over a few times. Not fast enough to start but she did turn over.

The ignition switch is very hard to pull out so I'm not sure if that's bad or not, I guess I could pull it off and check it but for 10 bucks if I'm pulling it off I'm going to go ahead and replace it.

The voltage regulator is broken at the grounding points on the back. I am going to pick up a new one for it. My first of many questions I'm sure is, after I put in a fresh battery, get a new VR (and of course polarize the Genny), if the tractor still will not fire what would be the next thing I should look into replacing?

Thanks for your help, really hoping to be able to get the ole girl running and pull in his driveway after he's home with a big bow on the front and surprise him. He loves raking hay with it!

Thanks, Chris

Basic troubleshooting is in order here, not just changing parts.

Get a manual, volt meter, compression tester etc and diagnose the issues.

still 6 volts

open fuel line at carb., is it getting gas to here.

if it is, i would hot wire, and see if it will hit.

if not, clean points and try again.

Mag or distributor system?? Need that info to help you. If a distributor try a hot wire from the battery to the coil ignition side and check for a good blue/white spark that will jump a 1/4 inch gap or more. Next pull the carb drain plug and make sure it has a good steady flow of gas for 3 plus minutes. Catch the gas to look for dirt /water etc and post back what you find

Thanks, hopefully I will get some time tomorrow to try this. The tractor has a distributor on it.

(quoted from post at 17:57:50 11/29/14) Mag or distributor system?? Need that info to help you. If a distributor try a hot wire from the battery to the coil ignition side and check for a good blue/white spark that will jump a 1/4 inch gap or more. Next pull the carb drain plug and make sure it has a good steady flow of gas for 3 plus minutes. Catch the gas to look for dirt /water etc and post back what you find

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Old gasoline won't start it like new gasoline. Old diesel doesn't seem to matter in an old diesel , but gas tractors need fresh gasoline

life goes in a circle, when i went to basic in 81 I had an H sitting in the barn also; stayed there till I came state side 4 years later althougt no one bothered to try to keep Harry up and running.

check the carb for fule and crud, pull the coil wire from the dist if a dist, and check for a blue spark, if mag i had to have mine re worked

also, wirght to your buddy, mail goes a long way in basic, i know been there done that , ended up in West Germany on the interGerman Border

If the spark is weak or not there clean the points with a point file or emery cloth. If you use the emery cloth then use some card board to remove the sand left behind, cardboard like a cereal box

Thanks everyone for the input so far. And bass, Thank You for your service. Yes I have written him. We are both big outdoorsmen so I have mailed him pictures from our trail cameras which he seems to enjoy looking at. His unit has also been given extra phone permission so he is able to call home every Sunday for 20 minutes and can talk to his wife and 2 year old daughter.

The ing. switch on my c is sometimes hard to pull too. I lube it with some penetrant and it pulls easier.

Don't bother buying a regulator. They are pure junk. Pull the generator and have it checked at a shop. Have THEM match a regulator to it and then you will know everything should function as it should. Regulators are not cheap when you have to buy about five of them to get one good one. Let the shop figure out which ones are bad. Replace all of the ignition parts and it should fire.

Make sure the battery ground strap is connected directly over TO the starter mount bolt. Eliminates lots of resistance.
I never oculd adjust points correctly, even new points. Somehow make sure they're correct.
I'll even stick in my carb adjust procedure I use;
Make sure the float isn’t sticking or touching the insides of the float chamber. Some previous advice was to use a Dremel tool and smooth the insides of the float chamber so the float doesn’t rub or touch. Pretty important.
Set the float so the top of it rests 1 27/32" above the flat surface of the float chamber.
Initial settings are as follows to get it started;
Main fuel adjusting screw, big screw facing down at an angle, towards the rear, at the bottom of the carb; 2 1/2 to 3 turns open. This main screw turns clock-wise for leaner mixture. [This screw adjusts fuel.]
Idle air-mixture screw, smaller screw facing forwards, on upper left-hand side of carb; 1 to 1 1/2 turns open. This idle screw turns counter-clockwise for leaner. [This screw adjusts air.]
Idle speed screw, faces outboard, at the top of the carb; set for 450 rpm, and make sure the governor correctly engages in the slot. [This screw adjusts RPM’s.]
Final settings are determined as follows;
Get the engine warmed up, and idling.
Turn OUT the idle air-mixture screw until rough running, then turn in until it idles smooth. (Mine is set at 1 turn open.)
Rev it up, wide open, warmed up, then turn the main fuel adjusting screw IN until rough, then out til smooth, then 1/4 turn to 1/2 turn further out. (Mine is set at 1 turn open. Other advice has been to set it at 2 1/2 turns open for pulling implements.)
Should rev up smoothly and evenly.
Too Lean = stumble, sputter, damaged melted plugs.
Correct = tan plugs.
Too Rich = back smoke, black sooty plugs.

1. Carefully remove the fuel lines that attach to the sediment bowl. Carefully remove sediment bowl from gas tank.
2. Completely drain the gas tank , rinse with warm water to flush out rust particles. Blow dry with compressed air, pay particular attention the the area forward of the large baffle partition.
3. Replace wire mesh & cork gasket at top of sediment bowl.
4. Carefully remove fuel line at carb, remove base fitting & replace wire mesh screen at fitting.
5. use compressed air & blow fuel line out from carb to sediment bowl. Re attach fuel line to sediment bowl & carb.
6. Turn gas off at sediment bowl & place 3 gallons of fresh gas into cleaned fuel tank. Or enough to cover sediment bowl stand pipe.
7. Remove forward pipe plug at bottom of fuel bowl on carb, turn gas on at sediment bowl at gas tank & let it run from the drain on carb into large coffee can for 1 - 2 mins. Turn off fuel at sediment bowl.
8. Battery cables may need to be replaced, Currently available 12 volt cables are too small & offer too much resistance to properly operate a 6 volt system. Replace with ought (0) or double ought(00) sized cable from battery to starter mounting bolt and battery to starter switch. Be sure to solder ends on and cover with large shrink wrap to insulate connections from future corrosion.
13. Replace battery & hook positive side of battery to ground attached as close to starter as possible, (mounting bolt) and negative side of battery to start switch.
( Dis-regard the above if converted to 12 volts)
14. Turn the fuel on at the sediment bowl below gas tank and count to 30 slowly, turn the fuel back off. The carb bowl should be full now.
15. Move the throttle lever to only about 1/3 of total throttle posiition.
16. Turn ignition switch on, and check ammeter movement, it should now show discharge of 3 to 7 amps. ( if not start trouble shooting as indicated above)
17. Pull choke rod out, hit starter switch, push choke rod back in as soon as it fires once, or after four revolutions.
Once tractor starts walk around & turn fuel on & let it run at 1/3 throttle for 5 mins to warm up.
If tractor will not fire or start, check points for pitting & reset, clean rotor and rotor cap contact points. Check condenser.
Double, triple check firing order on distributor cap.
If it still will not fire or start, proceed with electrical trouble shooting as mentioned above.

Quick question, I haven't had time yet this week to work on the Farmall. I will be getting a new battery for it on Friday so this weekend I should be able to work on it a bit. I'm curious to know if the tractor will fire even if the Voltage Regulator is bad. I'm not sure if it's working or not and I was going to buy one on Ebay but after reading Notjustair's post on here a few days ago I would feel more comfortable taking the current VR and Genny to the shop and have them both tested and buying a new VR from the shop. I will polarize the Genny when I install the new battery, just curious if a bad VR would keep it from starting....?? Thanks!

Generator, regulator and anything else in the charging circuit have nothing to do with getting it to start and run. In fact, for the time being disconnect the wire from the "F" terminal of the generator and it won't matter if the charging system is even wired up. Any time spent on the charging system before it runs is wasted time.

Don't be too cavalier about removing and tossing old parts. There may be nothing wrong with the ignition switch and he might want to have the irreplaceable original style.

Thanks Jim for your help! I'm going to spray a little lube on the switch and hopefully it'll loosen up. We shall see! I really want to hear the old girl fire up!

(quoted from post at 18:30:45 12/03/14) Generator, regulator and anything else in the charging circuit have nothing to do with getting it to start and run. In fact, for the time being disconnect the wire from the "F" terminal of the generator and it won't matter if the charging system is even wired up. Any time spent on the charging system before it runs is wasted time.

Don't be too cavalier about removing and tossing old parts. There may be nothing wrong with the ignition switch and he might want to have the irreplaceable original style.

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Hey folks. I worked on the tractor tonight, finally, and I siphoned the old gas out of the tank and also drained it from the carb. The tank is surprisingly very very clean. Put fresh gas in and let the plug out of the carb bowl to get fresh gas down the line. Plugged it back up and waited a little bit for the bowl to fill up. Put the new battery on and cranked the tractor. She turned over a few times and popped for a split second. I thought wow this thing might actually fire! After several starting attempts I fianally got her to run but she sounds like a hit and miss engine and then shuts off. I have done this several times thinking it was just some bad gas still but she is still sputtering. She will run about 20 seconds and die. I took a short video clip of it running but I'm not sure how or if I can upload a video to the forum. Any suggestions? Is this a fuel issue or does the problem lie elsewhere? When I give it a little throttle it kills the tractor and will also not start unless throttle is all the way down. This is as far as I have gotten. I haven't pulled plugs or anything electrical yet. Thanks for your help!

Firing order is 1342 a wire might have been switched along the line when working on it. Don't recall what way the rotor turns might have to pull cap and see which way when cranked. Does it run fast when running at low throttle or slow(seams about right) If fast fuel might be to rich, if slower but can't speed up to lean someplace (high idle adjustment??) I can't help much with out being there to listen to/tweak it

The tractor is running very slow at idle. And it will not even try to rev up. I actually thought maybe the throttle linkage was broke somewhere when I tried to throttle up and nothing happened. I checked out the linkage and everything is the way it should be. I did see the firing order stamped on the block. On the dristributer cap I see a number 1 printed on it. Should the first plug (looking left to right on the block) be in the number 1 plug on the cap? Because it's not. Its been forever sinse I've had to mess with friing order...Thanks!

The tractor is running very slow at idle. And it will not even try to rev up. I actually thought maybe the throttle linkage was broke somewhere when I tried to throttle up and nothing happened. I checked out the linkage and everything is the way it should be. I did see the firing order stamped on the block. On the dristributer cap I see a number 1 printed on it. Should the first plug (looking left to right on the block) be in the number 1 plug on the cap? Because it's not. Its been forever sinse I've had to mess with friing order...Thanks!

Don't know why I didn't think of this before. I uploaded the video clip to youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2CvpfYJbXU

Cylinders are numbered 1234 from front of tractor/engine to the back. Take the cap off and crank the tractor over a bit to see what way the rotor turns. Then get Cylinder 1 to Top Dead center(marks on crank pulley) on compression stroke(take out plug when you hear/feel pressure it's on compression). place cap on so rotor points at (or as close as you can)to the "1" on the cap. hook up the wires starting with plug/cylinder 1 at that 1 in direction of rotation follow with 3,4 finish with 2. Get tractor running and slightly twist distributor till running as best as possible.

Thanks Cory. It will probably be Sunday until I can work on this again. Do you think this could be the problem? Or at least a big part of it? Thanks!

To me it sounded like the mixture wasn't set right. Try turning the idle adjustment screw on the carb while it's running and see if that makes a difference.

if its missing that bad I would think timing is off. start by simply resetting the wires with 1 on the 1 and go around. If that don't help do a full retime(my last post) I just took a walk to the shed and looked at the H that is out there. To help get you close quick the wires on the cap are on as follows 1 is on top: 2 is closest to block: 4 is on bottom: and 3 is on outside.

I will try that. Would this be the screw on the side or bottom of the carb? Thanks!

Thanks Cory, I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I will check all that and play with the carb a little bit to see if an adjustment screw got messed up along the line somewhere. Could fowled plugs and dirty points cause this issue also? I haven't looked into either of those things yet and like I said it will be Sunday at the soonest until I can look at it again. Thanks!

maybe we have a w4 (same basic idea as H) that starts missing bad when plug 2 get fouled up. We think it needs a valve job, but that not the point. Check the plugs and wiring (easy problems to check) if that don't help look at the points.

I forgot to mention if the cap is set more square to frame when clipped (ours the hole for 1 is clearly on top) 1 would be top outside with 2 being top inside and 3,4 in the respective order on the bottom. just to let you know because some are set a little different when close (different brand of distributor, I would think)

Thanks Cory, I will verify where 1 is and go from there. Picked up new plugs for it tonight so I will swap those out too.

Keep at it Chris! This is exciting to read; the help & suggestions and the status updates.
I've got my popcorn and watchin the show lol

Really hope you can get it running. I've bookmarked your YouTube page - waiting to see the video of it purring along!

Here ya go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG4jtJSEK2Q

Smoke cleared up after a few minutes. I know how to do points now lol

Well folks the tractor lives again! I used my 'phone a friend option' today and a buddy of mine, (who's 21 and already has 5 antique tractors, I've never seen a young man with a passion for tractors like his, which in my book is AWESOME), came over today to help me replace the rotor, points, and condenser on the H. We cleaned up the contacts inside the distributor too. We set the timing and hit the starter. I've never seen a tractor take off so fast. I am so happy right now!

I've pulled the generator and regulator and will have those at the shop tomorrow to get checked out and rebuilt if needed which I'm sure it will need a rebuild. Even after polarizing, the tractor still isn't charging. But the hardest part is over and the tractor is running. Took it for a few laps around the yard tonight. I can't wait to show my buddy when he comes home Saturday! He is home for 2 weeks for the holidays and then heads out again to start his MP training. After that he is done training and will be headed home. I have a big wreath and bow ready to slap on the front of the tractor for him. He will be in his glory raking hay with it again this year. His wife and 2 year old daughter stopped by tonight to hear the tractor run. His daughter had as big of a grin on her face as I did mine.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions with this issue. Everyone's knowledge made this repair go a lot quicker and as long as the shop doesn't jerk me around this week the tractor will be ready by Saturday. This by far is the best forum out there because so many tractor fanatics are willing to go out of their way to help someone with their problems. I hope that I also have the chance to help someone in return.

Here is a link of the tractor running after the initial start up. The smoke cleared up after a few minutes of running and it is not smoking anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG4jtJSEK2Q

Thanks again for your help and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Chris

Good for you!! your friend you are doing this for will sure be surprised. If you need anything else with any other project let the community know and we be sure to help again.

Thanks for all your help Cory!