Ford 3000 distributor problem

wcrex103 · Nov 6, 2014

Hi,
I bought this tractor at an auction this summer and has always been hard to start. Usually have to use starting fluid. Once it is running seems to go good. I have done some mowing and tilling with it. I finally had time to check the timing on the thing. Problem is it won't turn the direction I want to try. The vacume advance hits the carb! Can someone tell me what is wrong?

Zebrafive · Nov 6, 2014

My guess is it had been removed and reinstalled wrong, maybe of a tooth or two on the drive gear.
The correct fix would be to pull it (with engine at TDC #1 cylinder) and reinstall.
Or maybe you could you move the wires around clock wise, each to the next spot then have enough room to turn the distributor counter clockwise.

enfield03 · Nov 9, 2014

It's installed a tooth off of the correct position -- follow above advice.

wcrex103 · Nov 11, 2014

Thanks for the replies! I found a Ford book that says to take the valve cover off to see the valves are closed to be sure it's TDC. If I just need to move it over 1 tooth does it have to be at TDC? I have never had a distributor out before an a bit nervous. I'll be in the snowy yard messing with it.....

Thanks again!

enfield03 · Nov 11, 2014

No, if you're just off a tooth, you don't need to pull the valve cover. Just don't crank the engine with the distributor removed.

As I recall, you want to note the position of the rotor before you remove the distributor, and then reinstall with the rotor turned one position (one tooth) in the direction you were trying to turn the distributor. It's been a long time since I installed a distributor, but it's coming back to me.

I've never pulled a valve cover to install a distributor, and I've installed a lot of them. If you bar the engine over utill the timing pointer and TDC allign on the damper, the engine is either at TDC on the compression stroke (good) or TDC on the exhaust stroke (bad). So if you've lost track of TDC, bar the engine over till you get TDC and pointer alignment and install the distributor. If the engine won't start at all, you found TDC on exhaust. Try again.

skyhook · Nov 11, 2014

wcrex103 said:
Thanks for the replies! I found a Ford book that says to take the valve cover off to see the valves are closed to be sure it's TDC. If I just need to move it over 1 tooth does it have to be at TDC? I have never had a distributor out before an a bit nervous. I'll be in the snowy yard messing with it.....

Thanks again!

You can take the #1 plug out, turn the engine by hand until the piston is at the top of the cylinder,
(you can put a screwdriver in to see the piston rise) then remove the dist. cap, it should be pointing at the #1 plug wire, it probably isn't now, so, remove the dist. and rotate it until it does.
Then you can adjust your timing.