Grandfatherjim
Member
I restored a 20-85 with great loving care and attention to detail, finishing in 2004, played around with it for a few years every so often, and then parked it over by the chicken coop "until later" when I could get around to doing the final thing, getting the hydraulics to lower.
Well later turned into a few years, which seems like 5 so it's probably 8, and Friday I finally decided to fire it up.
"Not so fast!" it says.... battery does turn it over, but nothing else happens. Well that gas might [i:d210dac1a0]just possibly[/i:d210dac1a0] be a bit low on those volatile components by now. Check, fiddle. No gas flowing anywhere. The petcock knob falls right off. Gas tank off, into garage, assemble a functioning petcock from parts of various other ones kicking around, get that working. I have two sections of hard line with a filter between with rubber lines connecting them. Gas doesn't flow through anything. Piece of mig wire being poked through the hard lines opens them up. Blow through filter, get flow happening both ways (why??!! you ask, do I not use a new filter??? good grief man!!! A: I live too far from town, and everything is closed anyway on Easter Friday (Canada). And, I now just want to prove I can get this thing to at least sputter!)
Lordy that old gas does smell foul.
If the lines are like that, imagine the carb! ...OK, let's take a peek. Pop the carb off, back to garage, split it in half, yuck, gooey. Clean clean clean fiddle clean. Choke butterfly absolutely seized. Where did I leave that PB Blaster? Great, it's back over at the tractor. Oh look, here's some Liquid Wrench! Soak push pull pry tug soak - it frees up. Works pretty durn smoothly now I must say! Needle and seat - surprisingly good, make sure it falls open and closed by gravity, yup, good. Take out jets, mig wire, blow through, good. Clean float bowl, yup good, everything back together and back on tractor.
Oh look, the centre wire is out of the distributor cap (this is the Lucas kind with the thread-in ends on the wires). OK, much fooling around, the end is cross threaded, the washer is missing off the wire, blah blah, back to garage, I get that fixed. No apparent spark. Hmmm, betcha the points aren't conducting. File file file. Wonder what the gap should be? Back in house, root for manual. 10 to 12 thou? Smallest gap I've ever set. Can't get in there....OK, pull distributor, yet another trip back to the garage. Has anyone noticed that you can't possibly set the points that tight on these new repro points?
Well, close as can be. Back in tractor, definitely sparkies happening. Combine 3 gallons fresh gas in tank with one teaspoon down each spark plug hole, reinstall plugs and voila! Sputter sputter - then nothing.
Gas in plug holes and try again. Same result. Try again. Same result. Bring other tractor over to hook up booster cables, try again. Same result. What was that definition of insanity again?
Pull off air intake pipe from carb. Much gas flows out. OK, flooded. Could be worse.
Well you know eventually it gets dark, and this time if year it still gets cold, and a guy is entitled to a bit of frustration, so that's the end of that day's escapade.
Did not get it started. Boo. Moral of story: don't ever think you'll get around to a thing as soon as you think you will! Man this is a beautiful restoration and I just get sidetracked for a few years (OK probably a decade) and look what happens. Well, I am now determined - will report back........ but it might take me a bit to get back to it; I have a few other priorities.....
Well later turned into a few years, which seems like 5 so it's probably 8, and Friday I finally decided to fire it up.
"Not so fast!" it says.... battery does turn it over, but nothing else happens. Well that gas might [i:d210dac1a0]just possibly[/i:d210dac1a0] be a bit low on those volatile components by now. Check, fiddle. No gas flowing anywhere. The petcock knob falls right off. Gas tank off, into garage, assemble a functioning petcock from parts of various other ones kicking around, get that working. I have two sections of hard line with a filter between with rubber lines connecting them. Gas doesn't flow through anything. Piece of mig wire being poked through the hard lines opens them up. Blow through filter, get flow happening both ways (why??!! you ask, do I not use a new filter??? good grief man!!! A: I live too far from town, and everything is closed anyway on Easter Friday (Canada). And, I now just want to prove I can get this thing to at least sputter!)
Lordy that old gas does smell foul.
If the lines are like that, imagine the carb! ...OK, let's take a peek. Pop the carb off, back to garage, split it in half, yuck, gooey. Clean clean clean fiddle clean. Choke butterfly absolutely seized. Where did I leave that PB Blaster? Great, it's back over at the tractor. Oh look, here's some Liquid Wrench! Soak push pull pry tug soak - it frees up. Works pretty durn smoothly now I must say! Needle and seat - surprisingly good, make sure it falls open and closed by gravity, yup, good. Take out jets, mig wire, blow through, good. Clean float bowl, yup good, everything back together and back on tractor.
Oh look, the centre wire is out of the distributor cap (this is the Lucas kind with the thread-in ends on the wires). OK, much fooling around, the end is cross threaded, the washer is missing off the wire, blah blah, back to garage, I get that fixed. No apparent spark. Hmmm, betcha the points aren't conducting. File file file. Wonder what the gap should be? Back in house, root for manual. 10 to 12 thou? Smallest gap I've ever set. Can't get in there....OK, pull distributor, yet another trip back to the garage. Has anyone noticed that you can't possibly set the points that tight on these new repro points?
Well, close as can be. Back in tractor, definitely sparkies happening. Combine 3 gallons fresh gas in tank with one teaspoon down each spark plug hole, reinstall plugs and voila! Sputter sputter - then nothing.
Gas in plug holes and try again. Same result. Try again. Same result. Bring other tractor over to hook up booster cables, try again. Same result. What was that definition of insanity again?
Pull off air intake pipe from carb. Much gas flows out. OK, flooded. Could be worse.
Well you know eventually it gets dark, and this time if year it still gets cold, and a guy is entitled to a bit of frustration, so that's the end of that day's escapade.
Did not get it started. Boo. Moral of story: don't ever think you'll get around to a thing as soon as you think you will! Man this is a beautiful restoration and I just get sidetracked for a few years (OK probably a decade) and look what happens. Well, I am now determined - will report back........ but it might take me a bit to get back to it; I have a few other priorities.....
I'm sure you've got er purr in just like ya did before!
