hard starting cub

[clarenceada]

New member and new owner to an old 1948 cub with a question that you may have heard before. I just bought this tractor to mow my one acre lawn instead of a new riding mower for the same money and the farmall
came with a sickle bar and belly blade. So I bought this thing to use and made sure it was in good shape and had the owner run it for me and it started after some fiddling and it was only about 40 degrees out. Well now after getting it home here in the banana belt of Oregon on an 85 degree day it failed to start------- so I did what my dad would do with his old farmall he used for scidding plup when it would act up-----a set of new plugs and a can of starting fluid----stilll no go! it has spark, but I have read about the spark of a healty magneto being thick and blue, well this is more small and white. about what you would get from an old honda 90 magneto ignition. Ever thing else looks good, the carb is clean and the float and needle in good shape, the battery is new and spins the engine good. I am wondering if I need to have the magneto rebuilt or is there a starting ritual that I need to learn. Any help with this old cub would be appreciated.
thanks
clarence

[beaconlight]

Welcome Clarence. Bet your dad changed points and condensor too. If you have a magneto it is a little different than with a distributor. Read the new member info first and then the mag set up info. With a distributer you use the elestricity from the battery. With a Magneto it makes its own electricity.

http://www.farmallcub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1459

http://www.farmallcub.com/HLChauvin.htm ... 't%20Start

http://www.farmallcub.com/HLChauvin.htm ... I%20&%20II

http://www.farmallcub.com/HLChauvin.htm ... Electrical

Bill

[Mag Man]

Hi , Yes if your spinning that mag over with the starter you should get a healthy Bluish maybe even a little yellow spark from her . I have rebuilts avalible and could rebuild yours if you would like . You may also want to go with a carb kit to and make sure allthe pasage ways are cleaned in it. Try to get a good IH kit for the carb there worth it when it comes to everything fitting right. If you need nore help get a hold of me.
JON

[Jim Becker]

Is is a 6 volt battery or 12 volt?

[clarenceada]

It has 6volt power. I read the faqs on it and understand most of it but the part where he said that with a magneto you could open and shut the points and get a spark without turning the magneto over. Don't you have to have a magneto spinning to get any voltage out of it? The plugs are wet when I took them out so the carb is getting gas, plus the previous owner said he had over hauled it not long ago and it looks it. The only thing I could see out of the ordinary was that the rotor cap connections are a little black. when cranking it seems to hit on two cylinders ever once in a while. Do you have to take the magneto out to change the points, as I really don't want to time it if I don't to have to as it looks worse than some old outboards I've done. With a .023 gap on the plugs (the smallest gap I have seen) is the cub weak in voltage with a magneto and does the battery igniton have more Zap and a bigger gap on the plugs? Thanks for the help and any of these questions you can answer.
Clarence

[Bigdog]

If you are seeing discoloration (black) on the rotor cap towers you are definitely losing spark efficiency. If you pull the center wire from the cap and crank the tractor over, do you have a better looking spark than you do when checking with a plug wire?
I would start with replacing the cap and rotor and then making sure the timing is correct. If you still don't have a good spark then some mag work or conversion to battery ignition will solve your problem.
I have seen some rotor caps cause problems that you couldn't see a problem visually. Ones with visual problems almost always are bad.

[Rick ('50, NC)]

Clarence,

Make sure that your choke is working correctly. On my '50 Cub, the choke lever was slipping on the choke shaft. I didn't know this because from where I was sitting on the tractor, I couldn't tell that it was not operating. The tractor was really hard to start and flooded really easily no matter what the temperature.

I got off of the tractor, made sure that the tractor was in neutral, and manually operated the choke. It starts the first time, every time now.

Best of Luck with your Cub.

[Mag Man]

You have that backwards the battery ignition is the one that the points will spark by moving the rotor to open and shut them .You can replace the points and condenser by removing the cover from the front that is held on with 3 screws. The coil cap on top hides the coil only unlike the H4 mag that the condenser is under that too. A new rotor will cost you at least $30.00 I remanufacture them cheaper but need cores with good gear teeth. Like I said before if you need anything let me know. I acn also give you timing instructions. If you remove the mag for work just note where the rotor is pointing and dont turn the motor and put it back on in reverse.
JON

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Magman is correct, the battery ignition distributor will spark by opening the points, but the magneto does have to be turning to create voltag for the spark. I have one of his remanufactured rotors, and it's good. As long as I have one with good teeth i will send it to him for a rebuild rather than buying new ones.

[clarenceada]

After trying every thing suggested here and still getting a weak spark out of the mag, I bite the bullet and took it to my local industial electrical shop where they found out the bushings were worn out and the coil was weak and they even had a rebuilt cub magneto on the shelf. Wanting to get started on the landscaping that I had bought the cub for I paid $339 for it
and had it back on the tractor yesterday afternoon. The battery was dead from all the grinding but I thought I would try it anyway, it barely turned it over and I was about to take the battery out when I saw that I had failed to turn on the ignition. Well what the heck, I might as well try it one more time and with the engine slowly turning over it instantly starts up and settles down to a smooth idle! Ah! the wonders of a good spark! thanks for the help, it at least help me to narrow it down to the mag and I know I could of got a better deal from you guys but you pay if your in a hurry. The cub works good but it has a belly blade and we managed to get it stuck clearing some brush the first hour and was wondering if it would have more traction with the blade out front?
Thanks
Clarence

[beaconlight]

Do you have rear wheel weights? You can put 2 sets of them on if needed. Chains are another possibility.

Bill

[Mag Man]

Did you have to give them yours also. I could have had one to you in two days with no problem heck I could have overnighted it if you wanted it that fast. It just makes me sick when people over charge. ?
JON

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

The cub works good but it has a belly blade and we managed to get it stuck clearing some brush the first hour and was wondering if it would have more traction with the blade out front?
Thanks
Clarence

With the blade on front you will actually have less traction on the rear wheels. With it in the middle part of it's weignt is carried by the rear wheels, when you put it on the front all the weight is carried by the front wheels, plus due to the linkage coming back to the center mount hydralics it actuall lifts some of the normal weight off the wheels when you raise the blade. Wheel weights will help, fluid in tires, or chains will help. a good sourcr of chains is http://www.tirechains.com

[clarenceada]

Yes it has wheel weights, front and rear, but I don't think more weight would help as whats happening is when the brush (mostley large weeds and heavy grass--- I never knew dandilions could grow so huge---over 7 feet tall!) is pushed ahead of the blade it builds up behind the front tires and when you get too big of a bit and try to back up it gets stuck on the pile of brush. Also when I push the blade down with the hydrolics it picks up the rear tire so I figured with the blade up front when you dig the blade in it would put more weight on the rear tires and then be able to back up without backing over the pile.
Which brings me to my next question: what additional lingage wil I need to put the blade up front, does any one have some pictures on the net that would show the two hook-ups.
Also trying to grade my gravel driveway and there must be a technique to it as all I did was dig gouges in the road. In a seach under grading I found a site on trail grading by the forestry service and they used a v shaped device pulled behind an atv. Any hints on this, I am trying to smooth out the pot holes.
Thanks
Clarence

[Bigdog]

I would think that used properly, the mid- mound blade would be ideal for grading your driveway and filling potholes. Perhaps you are trying to grade too deeply on each pass. Try taking a little at a time.

Here is a link to some grader blade pictures on T.M. Tractor's implement photo pages:

http://www.tm-tractor.com/gim/blade54a_001.htm