# 8n no start



## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

I have an 8N with the front distributor. I bought a 12v conversion kit with the 12v coil. I got all new electrical on the tractor from the points and condenser to battery. When I try to crank the tractor, it will pop enough to disengage the starter but won't start. The starter was dragging but I sprayed some WD-40 and it seems to really spin up now, enough that I will register oil pressure. I have bypassed the key switch, nothing seems to work. Any help would be much appreciated as I am at my wits end with this tractor.


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## pogobill (Jan 31, 2012)

Have you established that it is in fact getting spark at the plugs? I just re-did the electrical on my 8n but it's a side distributor. 
The front distributor models are notorious for having the screw that holds the points come loose and messing that up. Also, I installed my kit according to the Vague broken English instructions, and although it would fire and run for a few seconds, I had no luck either. The only addition to my installation was the "resistor". I disconnected it and put in a jumper wire and it fired right up, charges good, no problems. I also hooked up the instrument light for the Ammeter to through a little load on the system as well.
Also make sure that all the connections to the distributor, coil etc. are tight with good contact.


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## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

Yes it has spark at the plugs, burned the starter up cranking on it so much so I have my wife pulling me around the yard to spin the engine over. It's getting fuel, I can pull the drain plug and a steady stream of gas is coming out. It has compression because any gear lower than 4th and the tires lock up and slide. It has fire, new coil with battery voltage to coil and on to points. Sparks when points open. Pulled plug and visually checked fire, good spark. When pulling, the engine backfires through exhaust. It tries to run because you can see a little smoke come from the exhaust. I've tried to adjust carburetor that has been rebuilt, adjusting the timing, checked the gap on points and set to .015. I even used a multimeter to set it the last time to make sure everything was set perfect. I will crank and run as long as it's being pulled, the manifold is getting hot, but as soon as you stop or press the clutch, it just dies. Won't take fuel either, can only move throttle lever about an inch, any more and it won't do anything. 

Is it not getting enough gas to the carb? Looks like it's flowing as much gas as the 1/4" metal line will allow.
Could the distributor weights cause this? 
Point screws looked good and made sure they were tight.
Carburetor seems clean, no trash. New kit just put in. No inline filters just the ones, only OE screens. 

Should I buy a new carburetor, or distributor?

I have over 1000.00 in this tractor thinking that it wouldn't be that bad and have a tractor running that was built in the era of things being built in the U.S.A.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 20, 2003)

Recheck your firing order..1243 remember the rotor turns counter clockwise.edro:


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## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

I got it nailed down Ken N Tx. I checked after double checking the firing order both at the plugs and the distributor. This seems to be a common problem of getting the wrong firing order. This tractor has cranked before and ran for only 5 seconds at the most, like it runs out of fuel, but while it was running it sounded great. After re reading the the above post, started looking at what I've done and realized the only thing I haven't changed was the petcock so guess I'll change that and give it another try.


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## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

Tried the new petcock, still nothing.


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## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

I think I might have found my problem. I pulled the distributor off and bench tested with a battery. The spark on the tractor was a small orange spark. I have a inline spark tester which is adjustable, I set it at 20,000 volts which is about a 1/2" gap and it fired it bluish pink spark. The difference is I only used a ballast resistor instead of the thermal resistor found on the fire wall. I don't know if there is something to this or not but I'll wire it up like this and try it. Hope this fixes it.


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## hustler54 (Jul 7, 2013)

Just wanted to report back and the news is better this time. I installed everything like I had it on the bench and the old tractor started and stayed running! What a great feeling and sigh of relief that is. After dragging the tractor 6 miles in a circle, it cranked and ran after pulling it 15 feet! I had to put a new radiator on it but now it runs great. Really sounds mean when you put a load on it with the straight pipe. Hard to believe a tractor this old runs this good. Any ways didn't mean to get long winded, just excited is all. So yeah, if any one goes to 12 volt and the directions say go from key switch to thermal resistor, to ballast, to coil and you don't get fire, for go the thermal resistor and just use the ballast resistor. Another thing that I found out after the fact is even though it sparks outside the cylinder, doesn't mean that it's sparking inside the cylinder. Compression increases electrical resistance, that's why race cars with 12:1+ compression ratios have to use such high energy (voltage) ignitions. Well probably no one else is as novice as me when it comes to this but hopefully this will help some one one day.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 20, 2003)

Thanks for reporting back and glad its all working for you!!!! edro:


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## ktford9N (Mar 23, 2014)

*What is a petcock?*



hustler54 said:


> I got it nailed down Ken N Tx. I checked after double checking the firing order both at the plugs and the distributor. This seems to be a common problem of getting the wrong firing order. This tractor has cranked before and ran for only 5 seconds at the most, like it runs out of fuel, but while it was running it sounded great. After re reading the the above post, started looking at what I've done and realized the only thing I haven't changed was the petcock so guess I'll change that and give it another try.


I understand the firing order is 1243, but how do you check that?


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