Yeah, I'd probably change oil again soon. As far as the carb, there are probably links to tell you the initial settings. i wouldn't take it apart yet, other than drop the bowl. Don't be surprised if the fuel lines and everything else are plugged.

And I would splice a modern in-line gas filter between the tank and the carb. If you are worried about authenticity, save the old gas line and make a new one out of copper line

Not concerned about being original. Just need it to run reliably.

You'll never get all the crap out of the old gas tank. So add a filter. Put the old gas line in a box, In case someone wants to restore later.

Just guessing, there are probably a couple of adjustment screws, one for idle mixture, one for power. There are probably initial settings you can find on line. They will probably call for gently seating the screw and backing out a certain number of turns, like 1 1/2 to 2.

Convert it to propane and you won't have to worry about a plugged carb or fuel line.

If you haven't changed the transmission fluid, I would suggest doing so. There was a whole load of water and rust colored sludge that came out when I was working on my M. After researching online, this is pretty common, since changing transmission fluid in warm climates wasn't as necessary as up north where it actually gets cold. Over time condensation builds up and you end up with several gallons of water in there. I saw a suggestion to drain, refill about halfway (about 5 gallons for me) with diesel, drive around for a little while to mix things up and wash it a little, then drain again and fill with appropriate weight fluid. I did this, and it washed a lot of gunk out. And I saved the diesel as trash pile starter, since I will invariably have trash or a brush pile to burn sometime in the future.

Did you switch to propane? Would love to hear about that.

It, along with our H, and my uncle's M & H were all convertered back in the 50's. We've still got the original tanks, should I ever want to do a complete restoration.

That being said, propane is awesome from the stance that you don't really have to worry about the fuel train. Get a good regulator, and get your fuel adjustment screw set (not too lean or rich) and they'll fire everytime, even if they've been sitting for several months. I used the M to haul a deer out in late November, and didn't have a chance to drive it again until mid-May, and it fired up right off the bat.

Downsides are a.) if you are concerned about originality, it isn't easy or cheap to convert back, b.) you need to have a dedicated main fueling tank to fill the tractor tank, and c.) topping the tank off isn't as easy as liquid, and you really want to watch your tank level, since running empty away from home isn't fun. I had to start mine up on a BBQ tank when I was working on it, since the tank on the tractor was completely empty. So I now have an "emergency" tank and hose to bypass the main tank if I'm ever out driving it and run out of fuel.

So you just hook your propane line into the intake and play with the pressure till it runs right? That sounds awesome. A little more than what I need for this thing but still cool.

You need a tank, you need a vaporizer, you need a propane carb. It's simple, but it won't be cheap.

After a lot of trial and error, I finally determined that there is no vaporizer on mine. It's a Century H regulator, and they didn't route hot radiator fluid through it to vaporize liquid propane. No easy way to do it either, unlike the way our JD 4020 is set up. So I run it on vapor mostly, unless it is hot outside, which allows me to get away with liquid without it freezing up. It does run a lot smoother on liquid, and it seems to have more power. But I'm just using it as a toy right now and not for heavy field work. Just driving it on weekends, and using it for the aforementioned deer, since the creek crossing was washed out.

I managed to get it started by accident (used the hand crank, since the starter was acting up). But I was really rich and didn't know it. So, again, after trial and error, I went really lean before I was able to get it kick off. Light bulb came on then. Being really rich to begin with carboned the cylinders and plugs pretty bad. Once I got it started again, if burned all of it out, and I was able to fine tune it.

A couple of clips right after I got it started.

You are correct, a regulator is what you need. I'm just used to nearly all of them being a vaporizer as well. As was mentioned in the antique tractor thread on automotive, some of the propane conversions were pretty ugly. I saw one old tractor where the farmer had simply built a bracket on the side if his A John Deere, and had a 4-foot tall butane tank sitting there

Simplist carb I have ever seen. It only took me about 30 minutes to clean the fuel valve and carb. I need to flush some gas through the tank and drain it but it was relatively clean. Shouldn't be much longer till I can crank it up.

coolerguy,

That looks just like the carb I rebuilt on that old Lincoln pipeliner.

Make sure that the floats don't get bent any and touch the sides or the middle of the bowl or they can get jammed up.

I was a little careless the first time and the floats didn't 'float' as they should have. Yep, flooded it.

Never have time to do it right -- always have time to do it again.

BTW, what are you going to use that Farmall for? I see some guys put a belly mower on them.

Probably both are Zenith carbs and likely interchangeable!

It belongs to a guy I used to work for in high school. His plan is to sell it if anyone is interested. Right now it's in humble but it will be going back to tomball when it's done and I'll be on to the next project.

He has a few attachments for it and a spare engine.

I'm missing an internal gasket so the whole intake is flooding. I made sure the float is straight and operating. Hopefully this is my last trip to the auto store.

Gasket wouldn't make it flood. Either your float has a hole, your needle and seat is bad, or your float is adjusted wrong. And Tractor Supply has some old carb parts. Could also be debris between needle and seat.

Carb kit FTW. New needle, seat, gaskets, maybe float.

I meant to say o-ring. The gray plastic piece that is part of the air flow should have an o-ring and it doesn't. Gas is able to flow free into the intake. The gray piece is the one that is between the float on the picture. It mates to the hole in the other half with the carb jet.

The needle works. When I blow on the fuel line it's clear and when I flip the carb upside down you can't blow.

I'm 90% sure I got the timing right when I put the rotor back on. I checked it when I did the valve adjustment and it seemed to make sense. If it was off it would be 180 deg off since there are only 2 ways to put the timing system back together. Let's say it is off, could I just switch the plug wires to fix it? If the firing order is 1, 3, 4, 2 could I switch 1/4 and 3/2? Hopefully it's not an issue but I wanted to check in case it is.

How'd we come out so far? Did you get the seal for your venturi?

As far as they timing goes, I believe you can observe #1 coming up on TDC and pull the cap to see which what position your rotor is and put the #1 plug wire on that lobe, then go 3 -4 - 2 from there. If you want your mag timed to a certain lobe then bring your engine up to #1 on TDC, then time your mag like you want it. You will need to FIRE the mag on what WILL be your #1 position, THEN rotate the impulse coupling back to where it was when it fired and mount it on the tractor. You have to pull it all the way through to relieve the spring pressure of the impulse coupling.

Our community has an annual black tie ball to celebrate 'King Cotton'. There's parties all week, a royal court, Don y Dona, Queen, the board awards some generous scholarships.... it's big social event. The ball was Saturday night and I was asked to lend my G for decoration. I went and picked it up today. It has to be walked in on lumber planks - the city frowns on big chips in their stained concrete floor!

Do those tires last longer if you use nitrogen instead of compressed air?

Can you just imagine getting wrapped up in that? Good heavens those things are DEADLY.

I should get the o-ring today which should fix my flooding issue. If it doesn't run after that I might pull my hair out. I got it to fire a couple times even with the carb flooded so I'm optimistic.

Turns out there is no o-ring and I should have seen the level can't get high enough to flood through that spot. I'm still flooding the carb but only after I try to crank it. I have verified multiple ways that the float and needle valve work. I can turn the fuel on and get fuel out the bottom of the carb and the intake stays dry. As soon as I crank it the intake floods and I'm back to square one.

1. Sometimes it fires on the first crank or after sitting a while but it's generally only 1 cylinder.
2. It seems to fire more often with the hand crank. I got 3-4 fires in a row on the hand crank but I'm still flooding.
3. I have pulled the carb 10-15 times, replaced most of the parts, checked plugged passages and nothing helps. It still floods.
4. I have cleaned the whole fuel system and installed an inline fuel filter so I'm 95% sure no trash is plugging the needle.
5. I have verified the float doesn't leak

Edit: looks like my timing is off. Anyone want to help with that?

Yeah, I was darn confused at the reason you thought it was flooding, but I didn't say anything because I thought I must be missing something.

Still confused, though. If level is set correctly, if needle and seat are operating, it shouldn't flood. The only other thing I can think of is maybe when you assemble it, you are jamming the float where it won't operate.

Maybe set the float level lower than specs?

May have missed it, but where are you located?

I had to fight with timing on mine quite a bit, since all the belts were bad and I didn't know what I was doing at the time. Once I figured it out, the lightbulb went on.

I've got repro manuals for the M. I'm assuming it mostly matches the B mechanically, so if you don't have copies, I can scan pertinent sections later this weekend.

I'm in Humble.

Yeah that was dumb on my part. I'm sure the needle works. I filled the bowl with the top half off and ensured no fuel could enter the intake through a leak path. Then I set the top half with the float in place and blew on the fuel intake and I was sealed. Also if I install it and turn the fuel on there are no leaks. It only leaks after I crank it. I read a few things online where folks thought the timing was off. Last time this thing ran it cracked a head so a lot of engine work has taken place since then. Not sure if that could play into it.

quote:

---

Can you just imagine getting wrapped up in that? Good heavens those things are DEADLY.

---

A lot of the "safety features" on those old tractors were apparently designed by Charles Darwin. Lots of old timers at tractor shows with missing digits, crippled up, etc.

And I recall that the biggest complaint about those types of wheels was the constant dirt shower you received.

I just got in from the field and about to eat dinner, I want to re-read your post and think through it tonight but I wanted to take the time to tell you something you probably already know so please forgive me for stating the obvious if so- I'll leave it here for future reference

When hand cranking, position the crank so you are PULLING the engine through it's stroke. Please, no matter how tempting it is, push it through it's stroke or attempt to 'spin' it. This an elevated concern when timing is in question. Your non-compound fractured arms will thank you!

Thanks for the advice. I have been cranking it full circles and don't get any kick back. I believe it's got a mechanism that spits out the crank when the engine takes over.

Does this link make any sense? If timing is off the fuel will never burn and just end up back in the intake as liquid.
http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=farmall&th=977751

It spits the crank out when the engine takes over. It breaks bones when it backfires and you are pushing it.

I follow you. Yeah that would hurt a bit. I didn't think about the engine spinning the wrong way.