Re: 10-20 CARB CLEAN

Posted by LenNH on March 21, 2009 at 14:09:04 from (71.235.191.159):

In Reply to: 10-20 CARB CLEAN posted by DAN DOYLE on March 15, 2009 at 18:40:43:

Somebody correct me if this is wrong. I know that there was more than one style of manifold used on the 10-20 series (the exhaust exited through the hood OR through the firewall under the gas tank, depending on the manifold style). I THINK that these manifolds had a baffle that could be turned around to a cooler position for running on gasoline. The F-20 and F-30, along with the kerosene-distillate models of F-12 and F-14, had a lever that could be moved to different positions according to the fuel used, but I believe that the 10-20 had a baffle that had to be removed and turned around. It has been a LONG time (58 years, to be precise) since my father retired the 10-20 that I wrassled with for 10 years, and I don't remember much about the manifold. Some of you fellows who still have these tractors can probably comment on this.
Once, and only once, I decided to use kerosene, just to see what it was like. What a pain! Start on gas, cover the radiator with the blind, wait for vapor to start coming out the radiator cap, turn off gasoline, turn on kerosene, keep the engine hot or you'd get spitting and sputtering about like I do in heavy traffic these days. To shut down, off with the kerosene and let it stop, or....off with the kerosene and turn on the gas, shut off with the mag switch. I didn't know anybody who drove the old K-D tractors on kerosene by the time I got to using them around 1941. Too much trouble, maybe not that big a price difference then, but that I don't know.
Mostly because of the trouble involved in starting, keeping hot, turning off fuel to stop, etc. If you stopped on kerosene and waited a while, you'd have a lot of trouble starting, so that meant 1) drain the carburetor 2) fill carb with gas 3) start 4) switch fuels again. The other problem was that kerosene seemed to dilute the oil more than gasoline, so you had to drain down to the lower petcock on the crankcase every few hours, as somebody has mentioned in this post. The wasted oil wasn't free, either, so maybe the kerosene wasn't such a bargain after all.
I bounced around on that old steel-wheeled bird for a good ten years, and I sure wouldn't want to use one day in and day out any more, but I guess I kinda miss her. We never did ANYTHING to the tractor in the 22 years that my grandfather, father (and I) used it, and it always ran like a top. Rugged, rugged, rugged.

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