# Hello and NEED HELP!!



## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

Here is the Hello part...
Hello all 
I was born into a small dying farming community in Western New York (GO BILL'S!!)
I worked on local farms as I was growing up. stared out picking veg and grew into working the soil, planting and harvesting with one farm then working a few nights for others milking and as with most farms just doing whatever needed to be done. this taught me mechanics, electrics, economics and most of all a strong work ethic.
At an early age (just out of high school) I took a job with the local municipality wastewater division. Now 37 years later I have retired.
I told people that I needed a project to keep me busy. a dear friend of mine said she had just the thing for me.
She gave me by serial # search (10171) I believe to be a 1945 stylized LA that she said belonged to her grandfather and it had been sleeping in the back of the barn for as long as she could remember.
After two days of moving debris out of the way I drug it on my trailer and brought it home.

























It had a one bottom mounted on it and a large pile of cultivator parts (I don't think it's a complete set)
After checking that there was oil in all the places there needed to be, flushed some fresh gas through the system and IT RUNS AND DRIVES!!!!!

Here is the NEED HELP part...
I'm doing other things like fixing leaks in the radiator, changing oils in clutch, transmission, and final drives.
the issue I'm having is the final drives are not getting oil in them.
I have seen other posts that say the transmission, differential and final drives have a common oil chamber that holds between 6 and 7 gallons. I filled through transmission with about 2-1/2 to 3 gallons and it will not take any more and there is no oil in the final drives. I cannot find a second fill point for the drives. 
what am I missing/doing wrong??

Second bit of help I need...
how do I make it stop running??
It has electric start and it charges the battery (6v pos ground) when running but other than pulling spark plug wires (something I learned as a young boy as something you really don't want to do without well insulated gloves) I have to close the fuel valve and wait a long time for it to run out of gas.
there is a small threaded knob on the side of the Magnito that I recall on other equipment as having a tab you pushed to ground out the spark. on this unit that knob is grounded all the time.

I hope you fine folks can point me in the right direction for these issues that are confusing me.


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## JB Freeman (9 mo ago)

Congratulations on getting your tractor running. I myself have never even heard of this make and model tractor, clearly she’s old. I must admit it looks good for her age. There are some very knowledgeable folks in here and I’m sure someone will be able to provide some assistance. As for shutting her down, does she have a chock on the carburetor that you can close when she at idle? That would shut her down.


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## JB Freeman (9 mo ago)

I was able to find a link that maybe helpful for you. Appears she a John Deere



https://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/0/2/29-john-deere-la.html


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## Tx Jim (Jul 28, 2020)

Welcome to the TF
Nice looking LA. My parents had a similar model when I was young. According to LA operators manual each final drive has a filler plug. After engine is operating one should be able to press stop button on magneto until engine stops operating. You can download an operators manual for free at the following link. Search for Equipment Publications - Technical Information Store


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## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

Thank you for the warm welcome 
The only chock on the carb is the choke and closing it at idle doesn’t stall it, it only makes it run rough. 
there are “bosses” on the rear of the final drive castings and they are at about the right location to be the proper fluid level but if they are the issue is that they are just the bosses in the casting. They are not drilled and threaded with plugs in them????.
I’ll dig into the information you folks gave and try to figure it out. 
and I guess I should have posted this on the JD page so I will copy my original post and rename it “Newbie with an LA” just in case you want to follow. 
thanks again for all the helpful information available here.


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## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

Ok, looks like the forum is smarter and faster than I am
It appears that this has automatically been moved to the JD page. 
thanks again!!!


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

CATRAT66 said:


> Ok, looks like the forum is smarter and faster than I am
> It appears that this has automatically been moved to the JD page.
> thanks again!!!


Welcome to the forum! It ain't automatic! LOL!


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## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

After looking at used parts for sale on the web I was able to see where to plugs are.
a previous owner had changed the standard square head plugs out with recessed square drive ones.
they were full of dirt and painted over.
great job of camouflage!!!

now I just have to put the tin work back on and decide what I'm going to do with it? 
a neighbor has a small patch of strawberries he is going to turn under and has said that I can use my little LA to do it as a test drive.
here's hoping she can handle it.


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## JB Freeman (9 mo ago)

Congratulations on finding the fill and drain plugs. Did you find the stop/kill button on the magneto?


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## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

the "button" is just a knob on the side of the mag the tab I've seen on other tractors is not there. when I got the tractor, it had a wire on it going to a switch that was wired to a ground point on the chassis. the switch was broken and shorted so moving switch from one position to the other made no difference.
I assumed it was done so that shutting down the engine could be done from the operator's seat (good idea) the problem is that the knob on the side of the mag is grounded to chassis all the time even when tractor is running.
this leads me to think there is a wiring issue inside the mag.
I know little about how the mag is wired or how it works.
I have not yet opened it to try and figure it out.
any tips or tricks of the trade on this would be helpful.









thanks in advance of any help


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## JB Freeman (9 mo ago)

There are a few YouTube videos on John Deere LA magnetos. Maybe they could help you spot the problem. If you get a chance, pop the cover off the magneto and post to the group a picture or two to see if they can spot a problem. Everything I’ve seen concerning a remote switch for this type of magneto has the switch open the ground to the magneto to kill the engine. Maybe the switch failed previous owner and he just direct grounded at the magneto so he could start the tractor again.


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## CATRAT66 (5 mo ago)

You were right. took cover off and pulled the coil out to get at wire on knob and found that the insulating washers had been moved so knob and poet were always grounded.
pulled the bolt out put back together with insulating washers the way they needed to be so post is not grounded.
installed a switch (Houshold light switch I had on hand. not the right thing for this but worked well for testing purposes) and tractor has spark when switch is closed to ground and no spark when switch is open = no ground.
SWEEEEEET!!!!!!!! 
I can now stop the engine without having to shut off fuel wait for it to run out of fuel because that takes tooooo long and not safe.
or dumping the clutch while in 2nd gear to stall it that not the safest thing to do and terribly hard on the machine.

now on to the next issue.
while running it around to bring it up to operating temperature to double check the valve lash setting, not only did I discover yet another pinhole leak in the radiator but the fan bearing assembly spit out all its oil. 

there are a bunch of very rusted, very small flat blade headed screws that have to come out to be able to disassemble that for repair.

it's a good thing I took this tractor on as something FUN to do LOL!!!!!


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## JB Freeman (9 mo ago)

Glad you got your magneto switch setup. As for all the others problems, they are just opportunities to spend quality time restoring your tractor. Best of luck. And welcome to the group


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