Tecky H 60 spark problem

[roscoemi 245]

A friend is offering a deal on a big block chevy. With a slight nose modification, I would be able to push the snow into the county the Tecky landed in! 

[wheeledhorseman 573]

A quick question - did you remember to leave the stop wire from the ign switch disconnected for the first run attempt? (the centre connection at the non-fuse end of the board)

 

Reason I ask is that I didn't because I thought I must have fixed the fault having sorted out the points but my engine still only fired once or twice.

 

There were two separate faults that had conspired against me at the same time. The points needed cleaning, the pivot post they operate on cleaning and lubing and the gap setting. There was a definite problem with these.

 

However, there was also a fault with the ign switch in that it was almost all the time trying to close the engine down by stopping the spark. Remember though, if it does fire up (as mine did having done that) then to stop it you have to pull the plug lead or ground it.

 

Andy

[roscoemi 245]

Andy, yes I did when I had no spark and it made no change. Now I have good spark and fuel. While cranking, I noticed the recoil would stop momentarily when it tried to fire and possibly reverse direction a little before continueing on. Also had a couple puffs out of the head gasget when tring to fire. My guess is the timing is advanced too far, but how did it get there? It started this before anything was taken apart and I never touched the bolts on the stator, they may have allowed it to move. Will get a new head gasket and check the stator bolts cause I really don't know if their tight. If they are, how did everything get out of whack? I guess I'll find out, just go with what it's telling me and fix one thing at a time until it runs out of things to go wrong. Or I lose patience, don't have very much so the wife says, and pull out the explosives!

[BLUEBERRY 13]

Something to try, I fought  a hh60 that had spark and cranked hard and was a bear to start, to say the least. One day a friend came over and said Do you have a external coil laying around? I did and he took the coil and mounted it to the motor and ran the positive side of the coil to the ignition switch and the negative side to the points. That motor started as soon as the key turned the engine over and starts easily and perfectly everytime now. It is not a correct restoration  move but if you want those motors to start well, install a external coil.

[puddlejumper 67]

Something to try, I fought  a hh60 that had spark and cranked hard and was a bear to start, to say the least. One day a friend came over and said Do you have a external coil laying around? I did and he took the coil and mounted it to the motor and ran the positive side of the coil to the ignition switch and the negative side to the points. That motor started as soon as the key turned the engine over and starts easily and perfectly everytime now. It is not a correct restoration  move but if you want those motors to start well, install a external coil.

I seen that done on a old lauson fnr 4CYCLE outboard engine, I guess the coils for them are extremely hard to find 1947 I think, I had one once that ran well,I had a good coil, but the lower unit was bad,traded it for a rifle. Anyhow it worked well just had to keep a battery in the boat to fire the coils even though the outboard was a pull start.

[wheeledhorseman 573]

Feel for you on this one as there but for... and all that!

 

Did a bit more research on these, just in case I find I've still got a prob with mine when I complete the resto and have to hope it will still run.

 

I'm sure you will have, but double checking the points gap (20 thou I think) is worth doing. I had real issues getting mine spot on as every time I tightened the screw the points tended to open up a little. Apparently (from what I've read) as little as 5 thou out can make the engine misfire or even not run at all - that's how much it puts the timing out.

 

Apparerntly it is also not unknown for a plug to be faulty in that it will spark when out of the engine but not under compression.

 

Mag coils can be faulty and give a false impression i.e a spark at the plug when cranked but will not actually run the engine. Using an external coil was on my list as well but it never came to that fortunately.  I think it's a good way to prove a point but the alternator has such a low output on these engines that I don't think it will fully support the drain on the battery from an external coil.

 

Like you I'm not convinced the stator has moved. Two things - I recall when it did happen to me many years back, you could see it had moved as the stator under the securing bolt heads was still shiny. Also, if the rubbing moved it then I suspect it would effectively retard the ignition rather than advance it. Could be wrong of course - I'm still learning the ways of these things myself.

 

Andy

 

 

[Lane Ranger 10,472]

1. Spark plug can be bad on these motors -I have had to change to get good spark on some of my H 60's.
2. A bad head gasket will keep motor from getting all you need in compression to fire good too.

[roscoemi 245]

Was just out working on the little monster. Using the old points that were really not bad, slight pitting, I had spark but never had a clean break by the instructions in the manual using an ohm meter for setting the timing.  The new points I have broke clean exactly where they should have by the timing instructions, but produced no spark when put back together. Off came the flywheel AGAIN, and it looked like the side of the points going to the wire post, spring steel part, may be rubbing next to the mounting screw. I tried bending it slightly and promptly busted them. So, I shut the lights off and came inside, fired up the pellet stove and grabbed a carbinated adult beverage while ordering another set of points and a head gasket. I never moved the stator, but did check that the bolts were tight. I guess I'll try the old points again tommorrow and see how they time.

[roscoemi 245]

Got fire in the hole, finally!  I found a set of points and a head gasket at a tractor dealer and put them on. The points broke clean and I had good spark. A couple hits of the key and it fired up. Still a little finicky on start up, but much better. Gonna check the fuel side as the filter never has much in it. I had put a new Stens carb on it when I bought the tractor, it has one mixture screw on the right side that if all the way in the motor runs good and clean at high rpm but will not idle much lower than that. If I turn it out about 3/4 turn it will idle down, but sounds kinda crappy and will not rev as high or run as good. If I pull on the govenor with it at idle, it will stumble and rev up with black smoke. When it gets warmer I'll pull the carb and check the float setting.

 The battery reads 12.34 volts weather the tractor is running or not, so I'm not sure if it is charging or not. Time will tell I guess.

 The tractor seems to have more power, it will drive third gear without bogging down and taking 30 feet to rev back up. P'Chop is happy, although Momma would not let him out to ride it as he may be getting sick.

[dbartlett1958 96]

Persistence and Patience!  Great to hear things are progressing in the right direction.

[groundhog47 347]

I wish I could rem which member told me don't let one whip you, may have been krazyhorse, Jim. Been tryin; that since and you are provin' it true and saving a blastin' premit fee, Ha. Keep up the good work!  

[wheeledhorseman 573]

Great news - you got there in the end.

 

Re charging system (which is a rather generous term for what's fitted), looking at the manual I wouldn't expect to see any charge below 2,500 rpm ! It should certainly be showing signs of charging by 3000 rpm. All part of the design in that there's no regulator so the coils are designed to charge only at higher revs to avoid over-charging the battery. The system only had to replace what was drawn from the battery by the starter. If you only had a small yard to mow then I'm not certain the battery would have held up over time. I've designed a little rectifier regulator circuit to replace the diode board and try out on mine when I get to the stage of getting it all back together but the high revs needed issue won't be overcome by this.

 

Andy

[roscoemi 245]

Gerry, we don't pull permits up here. We blast and run! Did that a bit when I was down there at FT. Polk.  

Dave, don't have much patience but sometimes stubborness will win the day! Can't let Squonk be right about Tecky's!

Andy, if keeping the battery charged is much of an issue I'll hang a small car altenator on it driven by the motor.

 Thanks for the help guys. When you have never had to fix something, it can become daunting to try to understand how it works let alone fix it. You guy's helped lot's and I thank you!    

[roscoemi 245]

 I ordered a head gasket and points from partstree a little after 2pm on Friday and they were at my door today in northern Michigan from Austin TX. That's some service!