commonrookie
New member
I'm new to the forum and new to tractors. This site helped me a lot as a lurker so I thought I would share my story as I work to get a Ford 601 (641 to be specific) up and running well. I made a bunch of mistakes have a lot of questions for the knowledgeable folks here.
I bought my 641 from a private seller in Kentucky for $2900. Upon initial review the tractor ran well, the PTO worked as did the hydraulics. It started right up, idles well and my test drive revealed nothing concerning. It didn't smoke looked clean and seemed well cared for the only drawback was the gauges we all dead. I thought I got a pretty good deal as it was in better shape than i could find locally. I put it on the trailer and took it 400 miles home.
Mistake 1, I tried to fire it right up when i got home. The battery would only give me 4-5 tries at cranking before it died so right off the bat i had a dead tractor. Turns out the sloshing gas in the tank had freed a lot of sediment and clogged the fuel line at the shut off valve. This took about an hour to figure out and resolve. After trickle charging the battery I was excited to get it working and prove to my darling wife that I didn't just blow our tractor budget on a lemon.
With a fresh charge and a clean fuel line the tractor started and ran fine for a day.
The following day the tractor would shut off for apparently no reason while driving. I suspected it was flooding as the exhaust smelled quite rich. after some research I decided to shut the tractor off for the day but shutting off the fuel and letting it run dry. The next morning it wouldn't start. Since the tractor was shut off by fuel starvation I had stupidly left the key ignition in the on position.
Took the battery to the autoparts store to test it and it was done. I think it was already on the way out but i didn't want a bad battery to give me misdiagnosis of problems going forward. I also inspected the points and found that I was lucky and the tractor had shut off with points in the open position.
The next day i began educating myself about the ignition system. I inspected the full system and pulled the plugs. I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE BUYING THE TRACTOR. Plugs 2 and 3 were badly fouled and throwing terrible spark. The fouling was caked and wet but they are firing and there is an audible difference when they I remove the plug lead. So i head off to by new plugs. The new plugs fouled in the first few hours. They still fire but have a wet black crust.
However the tractor now runs reliably starts easy but bogs down when going up hill and seems to lack the power I would expect it have. It burns some oil and the engine misses and pops a bit. I'm concerned that fine debris from the fuel tank entered the engine and ruined my rings but i've decided to get good spark before I submit to a tear down.
I began to realize that i was tackling one problem at a time with band aid solutions and not addressing the whole unit so I started over. I pulled the gas tank which i should have done first. I cleaned it with soap and water and put all my sockets inside and rolled them around to break free more debris. What came out shocked me. The tanks really didn't look bad at first glance but i filled a mason jar with crap from inside. I also removed the old fuel sending unit and replaced all the gauges. Turns out they weren't wired at all. No oil pressure line, no proofmeter cable, etc.
I changed the oil and filter. Pulled the carb and cleaned it out.
I replaced the old coil with 3.0 ohm flame thrower and cleaned up the wiring and electrical connections will be pulling the points installing an electric ignition from pertronix on monday. This was available on amazon for $100 for both the coil and the ignition which seemed like a no-brainer when you consider 40-50 bucks each year for a points tune up kit.
The new coil seems to have eliminated the problem of the tractor bogging down going up hill. It still slows but it no longer pops and stutters. I'm thinking my troubles could have been a problem with bad spark all along.
I bought my 641 from a private seller in Kentucky for $2900. Upon initial review the tractor ran well, the PTO worked as did the hydraulics. It started right up, idles well and my test drive revealed nothing concerning. It didn't smoke looked clean and seemed well cared for the only drawback was the gauges we all dead. I thought I got a pretty good deal as it was in better shape than i could find locally. I put it on the trailer and took it 400 miles home.
Mistake 1, I tried to fire it right up when i got home. The battery would only give me 4-5 tries at cranking before it died so right off the bat i had a dead tractor. Turns out the sloshing gas in the tank had freed a lot of sediment and clogged the fuel line at the shut off valve. This took about an hour to figure out and resolve. After trickle charging the battery I was excited to get it working and prove to my darling wife that I didn't just blow our tractor budget on a lemon.
With a fresh charge and a clean fuel line the tractor started and ran fine for a day.
The following day the tractor would shut off for apparently no reason while driving. I suspected it was flooding as the exhaust smelled quite rich. after some research I decided to shut the tractor off for the day but shutting off the fuel and letting it run dry. The next morning it wouldn't start. Since the tractor was shut off by fuel starvation I had stupidly left the key ignition in the on position.
Took the battery to the autoparts store to test it and it was done. I think it was already on the way out but i didn't want a bad battery to give me misdiagnosis of problems going forward. I also inspected the points and found that I was lucky and the tractor had shut off with points in the open position.
The next day i began educating myself about the ignition system. I inspected the full system and pulled the plugs. I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE BUYING THE TRACTOR. Plugs 2 and 3 were badly fouled and throwing terrible spark. The fouling was caked and wet but they are firing and there is an audible difference when they I remove the plug lead. So i head off to by new plugs. The new plugs fouled in the first few hours. They still fire but have a wet black crust.
However the tractor now runs reliably starts easy but bogs down when going up hill and seems to lack the power I would expect it have. It burns some oil and the engine misses and pops a bit. I'm concerned that fine debris from the fuel tank entered the engine and ruined my rings but i've decided to get good spark before I submit to a tear down.
I began to realize that i was tackling one problem at a time with band aid solutions and not addressing the whole unit so I started over. I pulled the gas tank which i should have done first. I cleaned it with soap and water and put all my sockets inside and rolled them around to break free more debris. What came out shocked me. The tanks really didn't look bad at first glance but i filled a mason jar with crap from inside. I also removed the old fuel sending unit and replaced all the gauges. Turns out they weren't wired at all. No oil pressure line, no proofmeter cable, etc.
I changed the oil and filter. Pulled the carb and cleaned it out.
I replaced the old coil with 3.0 ohm flame thrower and cleaned up the wiring and electrical connections will be pulling the points installing an electric ignition from pertronix on monday. This was available on amazon for $100 for both the coil and the ignition which seemed like a no-brainer when you consider 40-50 bucks each year for a points tune up kit.
The new coil seems to have eliminated the problem of the tractor bogging down going up hill. It still slows but it no longer pops and stutters. I'm thinking my troubles could have been a problem with bad spark all along.
