Spark plug wire location

[leather]

I have a John Deere 440 IC bulldozer. Is it possible someone put the distributor in 180 off, and wires are crossed on their way to the Head. All the pictures I'm seeing in my manual, have the wires connected to the distributor cap on the inboard side, closest to the Head. On mine the wires are on the outboard side of the cap, farthest from the head.

[dtoots1]

first, it helps yu and others if you will add your location information to your profile, help may be nearby!

a little more info is needed on your spark plug problem.
i have to assume the machine is not starting or running....have you been working on it or did someone else?
just need a bit more background to get correct answers..

i too have a jd440ic and it is working great...tho right now we are getting snow!!!!

welcome to the board

[leather]

I just bought it, and used it for four or five hours. Then I ran out of gas. After refilling the tank started having a problem like it was running out of gas. I noticed dirt in the glass bowl under the tank. Clean that out, clean the carburetor, and try it again. Again it acted like it ran out of gas with more dirt and the glass bowl. Clean the carburetor again, tried it again, and it shut down hard like I had turn the ignition off. Went ahead and pulled the tank off cleaned it out (it was full of dirt and gravel). Clean the carb again, put it back together, and it still wouldn't start. I figured the plugs may have been dirty, which is what the problem was. Totally impacted . Pulled both plugs, clean them, and when I was ready to put them back in, I hook the wires back up the way they were laying which they were actually crossed.
I have the manual, and all the pictures I see show the wires coming off of the distributor cap on the head side of the cap, between the coil wire and the motor. My wires are coming off of the outboard side of the distributor cap.

[leather]

Still trying to figure out how to navigate on this forum. Don't see where I can put my location on a profile. I'm in waynesburg Ohio

[leather]

After I clean the plugs and put them back in it still wouldn't start. I bought new plugs to see if maybe the plugs were bad, but the starter burned up trying with the old plugs. Having starter rebuilt right now. Get it today or tomorrow. Just been wondering if I had the wires crossed on the old plugs.

[leather]

I just looked at the distributor again. The hot wire connected to the distributor is opposite side from the pictures in my manual

[dtoots1]

ok
you actually have a 2 cylinder engine...if you crossed the wires then you would be out 180 degrees... you would simply need only reverse them to put you back into firing order,, my 440 distributor is situated with number 2 plug wire on the distributor cap closest to the engine side..number 1 cylinder spark lug wire is the one toward the radiator or front of machine.
and yes you will probably have to clean fuel tank several times as rust forms inside continuously...i actually added another in line plastic throwaway filter before the carb..somewhere that you can reach and change it

If i remember correctly Waynesburg is somewhere south of Akron?

access to your profile is in the drop down box where you login

the electric coil wire is to the outside and kinda towards the rear...with 12 o'clock being straight towards radiator your number 1 plug wire on the cap would be at about 2 o'clock, the elec wire fro coil at 5 o'clock and 2 cyl at about 10 o'clock

[leather]

Pretty sure the distributor was put in 180 off. When I went to replace the plugs, the wires were laying crossed. Looking at the distributor, my wires are coming off of the cap on the outside edge of the cap closest to me. The blank holes are towards the motor. The hot wire is also on the opposite side from where the pictures are showing it in the book.

[leather]

And yes, I am eight miles south of Canton

[leather]

Can't figure out how to put a picture on here. One wire is closest to the oil filter. The other wire is on the outside edge, between me and the coil wire

[dtoots1]

ok simply try just reversing the plug wires to the other cylinders.

will get you to uploading pics later...

have you moved the distributor at all? if it ran before then did you do anything to the points or condenser?

now while machine is down waiting on starter, you are not able to start the machine....so you should take the time to check all fluids.
If any oils are showing milky or chocolate milk looking you have water n the oils...if oil was recently changed you can add "sea Foam" to the oils..both hydraulic and tranny to remove the water, i use it kinda regular and add it to fuel tank as well.

when changing tranny and or engine oil, simply drive up on some double planks or railroad ties for room to be underneath...do not use concrete blocks, i also raise blade and put wood blocks under blade so i can access front of engine to change engine oils

[leather]

Yeah, I am going to hook them up opposite of what the picture is showing when I get my starter back. I was just trying to eliminate that as a problem of it not starting, if it doesn't fire up right away with new plugs. I'll let you know how it goes

[leather]

No, I haven't moved the distributor. Was just second-guessing myself on the way the plugs were hooked up, after I took them both out and clean them. The wires were laying crossed. So I hooked them back up where they naturally laid.
It was running fine until I ran out of gas. The bulldozer was vandalized where the last owner had it parked. It sat for months before he ever started it up. He never ran it low on gas. My guess is, when they vandalized it, broke all the gauges and the headlights, they dumped a handful of dirt and sticks in the gas tank. The dirt laid directly below the filler tube and made itself into a little mud Patty that didn't bother anything until I ran it out of gas. I dumped gas in on an empty tank, on top of that mud Patty, and got it loosened up and able to get into the fuel stream

[dtoots1]

considering vandalized i would certainly want to see that the oils are not contaminated....

also what voltage is machine? does it have generator or is it alternator?

[leather]

It's 12 volt. And yes I changed the oil before I even started using it. Didn't notice anything