12-1-99: The lead washers arrived today, so I will put them in
Saturday.
12-4-99: Pat Noonan came over today and we finished putting the
tractor back together. I torqued the head and connecting rod nuts and put
the cotter pins in the rod bolts. I put the rocker arm assembly on and
adjusted the valves to about .020 inch. I will readjust them when the
engine gets hot. We put the carburetor on along with the crankcase
breather pipe. We put the lower radiator pipe and hoses on. Pat put
5 1/2 quarts of oil in the engine and gapped the new A/C 88 plugs to .030 inch
while I put a gallon of gas in the small tank. We put in the plugs and Pat
hooked the wires into the magneto cap. We filled the radiator with water.
No leaks.
I turned the fuel valve on and checked to see if the fuel was getting to the
carb by opening the carburetor petcock, and gas came out. We are now ready
to start. We talked about pulling the tractor with a pickup and agreed it
would be dangerous, but we could take it easy and it would be OK. We also
decided to try hand starting to see if it would work. I set the throttle
half open, we opened the cylinder relief valves, and I gave it one turn with the
choke on full, and it popped once. I said that I think that is a good
sign. I adjusted the choke to where I usually put it when starting, and
turned a few more times, all with no results. I choked it full again and
turned a few times and it popped once again. One more turn and it fired
and then it ran. We closed the relief valves. then I slowed the RPM
down from half throttle, and it died.
We opened the relief valves, set the choke to full and I turned it again,
then a few more times, then I said to Pat that I was beat. He turned it a
few times with a few pops so we played with the choke some, then I tried again.
After a few more turns, it started again. We let it run this time
until it warmed up. I ran it fast, medium and slow and it sure sounds
different. I pulled the sparkplug wires one at a time, and both side fire
the same now, so I think the right side was not working at all before. The
exhaust has a much better sound, too. It is more crisp, and does not have
the echo-like sound it had before.
After running a half hour, we shut it off and drained the water and shoved
it back in the garage. Enough for one day. It runs much better, but it
starts different. I am pretty happy with the job, overall.
12-5-99: Carolyn and I went to the Will County Thresherman's Pot Luck
Lunch down in Wilton Center today. We joined this club a few weeks ago,
and this is the first event we were able to go to. We had a great time,
met quite a few interesting people, and had a good meal. It started
snowing on the way home, so I guess winter is here.
here
to
go to January/February, 2000.