An interesting service call

An older local fellow asked me to come over and verify the distributor position/timing and firing order of a NICE 656 hydro he's been working on for a couple of years.


Story he told was that it had been running well, then mice got in through the muffler and packed a couple of cylinders full of micey stuff, and that he'd taken the cylinder head off to clean it out and unstick a couple of valves.

After he put it back on, he said it wouldn't start and he thought maybe he'd messed up sparkplug wire positions in the distributor cap.

He'd just put a brand new battery in and was eager to get it running.

I removed the #1 sparkplug and held a finger over the hole to feel for compression to find #1 TDC.

My rough findings were that he apparently had the #1 wire in the proper position in the cap and the firing order correct.

So, let's do this right and find the timing marks on the front damper.

It was parked in tall grass, and I slid underneath to look at for timing marks on the damper and noted the oilpan was missing!!!!!

There were a few tall strands of grass that actually had grown up into the crankshaft area and got wrapped around the crankshaft when he tried to start it!


I said "Arvid, you've lost your oilpan"!

He said, "no it isn't lost, but I lost the bolts for it, I picked some up in town the other day, now I've lost them"!

"Buts that's OK, we can try to get it to start, it won't hurt for it to run for a short time".

It took me a bit to recover my composure, tell him we would resume trying to start it after the oilpan and oil were installed, and make my exit.

(He never did remember/explain why he'd removed the oilpan.)

if he?s that clueless I hope you explained that he needs to remove the weeds from the crankshaft before reinstalling the pan ? I guess you could start it if you can figure a way to get oil to the pump so it can send oil to everything but you might still want to remove the grass first

Boy is that ever scary. We are all heading in that direction folks.

From the perspective of maybe 75 years whats a couple minutes without oil?

Well that's probably a first. It would be for me.

That makes you wonder did he put a head gasket on it

Might need to talk to his family before he drives to town again.

Definatly something wrong upstairs. Does he have alshimers or did he have a strok that affected his brain? That far out of it he should not be driving any place.

Back in the day, I bought a '76 Chevy 4x4 pickup with the engine disassembled. The problem actually was in the front axle.

The lady I bought it from said her late husband had had a brain tumor that affected this mind. He knew there was something wrong with the pickup so he went ahead and tore the engine down, even though the problem was elsewhere. He had died shortly thereafter.

I overhauled the engine and re-installed it. Then I found out the splines had stripped on one front axle. With full time 4wd, if one front axle spins in the hub, you don't move unless you lock the transfer case.

Kinda sad, really.

(quoted from post at 09:16:06 09/06/19) Back in the day, I bought a '76 Chevy 4x4 pickup with the engine disassembled. The problem actually was in the front axle.

The lady I bought it from said her late husband had had a brain tumor that affected this mind. He knew there was something wrong with the pickup so he went ahead and tore the engine down, even though the problem was elsewhere. He had died shortly thereafter.

I overhauled the engine and re-installed it. Then I found out the splines had stripped on one front axle. With full time 4wd, if one front axle spins in the hub, you don't move unless you lock the transfer case.

Kinda sad, really.

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Back in 1978, my late Uncle was developing a brain tumor, but we didn't know it yet.

I had a John Deere 800 windrower parked by the shop for some minor repairs (I don't remember exactly what it needed).

He came by when I wasn't there and randomly took the reel drive mechanism at the end of the header apart for no apparent reason, and didn't know why he'd done it.

He quickly got even more confused, and was then diagnosed with a brain tumor.

A VERY sad way to die, it took two and a half years.

Maybe a very old 2 cylinder Deere could handle the "no oil" for a few minutes but even that would be scary.

Bob, Would Arvid be someone I might know?

I have heard of people changing oil on old Caterpillar's while they were running. I guess it might be ok as they already had oil circulating but in the case of an engine sitting for years not a good idea

Dementia. Taking stuff apart for no good reason is a classic symptom for older men.

I once visited a relative with dementia who was a ham. He immediately recognized me and invited me in. Then he showed me one his radios he was working on. It was obvious to me that it would never work again.

That would be a dry sump system?

(quoted from post at 11:00:17 09/06/19) That would be a dry sump system?

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That has got to be it! onefarmer, LOL.

(quoted from post at 13:51:30 09/06/19) Dementia. Taking stuff apart for no good reason is a classic symptom for older men.

I once visited a relative with dementia who was a ham. He immediately recognized me and invited me in. Then he showed me one his radios he was working on. It was obvious to me that it would never work again.

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Dementia. Taking stuff apart for no good reason is a classic symptom for older men." Darn, I must be really old, because I remember taking a strobe light apart, right out of the box, at 20 years of age as soon as I got it home from the camera store!
I found out how they made 400v from a 3v battery.