Finding and reading serial numbers and Troubleshooting starting Caterpillar TEN

Welcome to the BB. There are dozens of people here that can help you start that 10. I am most familiar with the 15 but I think the timing procedure is smiliar.

The firing order is 1342. Check that first. You need to take the valve cover off and watch the valves on number one cylinder, the one closest to the fan. Try and find the approximateTop Dead Center for number 1 by watching the intake rise and then fall, crank a few more degrees and look for the timing mark on the crank pulley. There should be two lines about 25 degrees apart. The second one is Top Dead center for number one but only if the intake on number one has recently closed. The first one is where the timing should run once the engine is started and running. This can be checked with a car battery from another source and a timing light.

Adjust the mag so that it fires on number one as you crank the engine right at the second line. This will put the timing close.

See if this helps. There are a variety of other things to check such as compression. I posted a thread on the lack of compression about 2 days ago and got some good responses.

Keep us posted and we will get that 10 started. Gary

I am not familiar with Cat gasoline engines, however an easy way to find top dead center for cylinder number one is pull the spark plugs and have some one crank the engine. Put your finger over number one hole and when the compression stroke comes up, it will put pressure on your finger. Set your magneto accordingly.

since it is not running, and it is fireing through the exhaust like a shotgun, your timing is late, this can be either from the actual mag timing which is most likely, or your points could be hanging up and closing late causing late spark, (very rare, but I have this issue on my pony mag). Another possibility is that the firing order on your plugs is incorrect or you have gone around the distributor backwards with your wires. which could explain it feeling like it locks up halfway through a rotation on some and not on other cyls.

remember, you only need three things to make an Internal combustion spark ignition engine to run, Fuel and air and spark on time.

it can be that only one cilinder has good closing valves , that the other 3 dont have that so you feel this, measuring the compression would be handy.

Thanks for all the great advice I was able to get the tractor running it fires up when you turn it over a quarter turn and Adjusted the carb so it runs fine. But when I went to put it in gear I wasn't able to engage the clutch. It seems like the clutch petal is frozen or locked up maybe? I'm not sure, does anyone know how to adjust the clutch pedals or fix this? I kind of have the idea that the pedal isn't pushing the levers far enough to engage the clutch but i'm not sure. (Still figuring out the picture uploading I have a Mac and the pic uploader doesn't let me upload pictures)

the clutch pedal is adjustable, just on the underside of it, and mabe you have to adjust the clutch brake ( in side the clutch housing, open the square piece in front of driver with the oiling cup on it)
so if you hear the gears make noise when you want to shift , then From there you can losen the clutch brake , and find another hole to put the bolds back in and in a way that if you push the clutch , on the end of the stroke the brake is aplied.
you can open it and see inside with a torchlamp to look if everything working well.
The transmission have strait gears and no sinchromeshes, so only change gears when standing still.

So I looked into it more and the problem seems to be that the throw out bearing is stuck in place. Ive tried penetrating oil (of all kinds) and I've tried loosening it by force, but i have had no luck at all... does this mean I need to separate the engine and transmission to get into the housing and free it by hand? At this point I am thinking know that I know it runs fine I might as well start tearing into it anyway to start the actual restoration process.