New Cub owner wants to learn how to start it! (HELP!)

[BobBurchett]

A friend sold me his 1948 S/N 13586 (is there a registry perhaps?) I love vintage machinery and consider myself mostly engine-competent (owning vintage cars, etc. somehow makes you think you are qualified to make most anything run) and this is the first magneto machine I have encountered. After sitting for 5+ years (yeah....I know it ran when you parked it there....anyone heard that one before?) cleaned the carb, drained & flushed the tank so now have good gas in it, battery, oil, water, the usual suspects....now I am down to the magneto. I need to learn what the shifting lever is doing (seems to be headed toward the magneto at the front of the engine...but WHY?) and I am "assuming" the disconnected wire from the mag is the "kill" line (ground to stop) right? I also found a loader attachment that has some chance of fitting the Cub, but I am not sure; so I will post that in the Implements section to see if I can get some advice. I am open to a phone call if someone can verbally guide me thru the initial startup. Cell phone is 310.686.9973 so if you are more familiar with these than I am (that means everyone on the List...OK?) and have nothing better to do give a newbie a yell and help me dig myself out of this Cub hole I am working on digging for myself! Best regards; Bob Burchett

[Don McCombs]

Bob,

This is the Cub magneto...


Photo courtesy TM Tractor Parts

There is no mechanical linkage to any other part of the tractor. Perhaps you can take a few photos of what you have and post them. Then, we may be able to better help you. You might also ask your friend if anything was done to the tractor since it was last run.

[ricky racer]

Welcome Bob. Prime the oil pump before starting....

[staninlowerAL]

Does the "shifting lever" you are referencing connect to the lever on the steering wheel support post? If so what you are seeing is the throttle control rod that connects to a small control lever mounted on the side of the governor housing. This small control lever must move freely on the shaft when the throttle is advanced. Note: the lever is cast and will not sustain a lot of forceful attempts to free it. If it will not move, soak the lever/shaft with your favorite penetrant and gently tap on it until it frees up and be patient, don't expect instant results.
EDIT: Hope you had success with the starter switch/solenoid. I sent you a PM. Click on Private Messages at the top of this page and you can open the message.

[BobBurchett]

Hello ALL and much thanks for all the quick & very helpful replies; I am a quick learner; Model T owner and love vintage iron; so this is a ton of fun for me. Worked with it until I flat ran out of daylight, plugged in the trouble light (appropriately named eh?) and kept going. SO FAR:
A kind gent I called on Craigslist about some parts let me know I have a November 14, 1947 motor block (11-14-Q code date) and a 1948 serial number I picked up & decoded off this List; so it is a pretty darn early bird. It is factory built non-electric (no lights, no front fenders, no generator, no starter, no battery, no hydraulics) bare-bones CUB that someone later on bolted a starter onto and grafted in a "Ford type" 2-post starter solenoid behind the "dash" with a toggle switch to "start". The prior owner had it wired wrong and it wouldn't work; so I fixed that, changed the oil, filled the (nice looking!) radiator up with 50/50 and bought a small battery (250 cold cranking amp) to fit in front of the "dash" (toward the radiator) on that flat spot where the cables could be made to reach. It doesn't have a battery box, so this makes the cables as short as possible and I will build a battery hold-down later. The motor spins nicely, cleaned the spark plugs & re-gapped to .025 and get a nice blue spark from all 4 but when I crank it pops annoyingly....may be out of time...I verified firing order & made sure the wires are on right (I am pretty sure they were on wrong)

MY magneto is "slightly" different than the one the kind Don posted (THANKS Don!) as the forward part (to the right in the photo) on my older version has a much larger front bell cover and there is a lever on the top of it....after talking with Stan on the phone (MUCH appreciated you calling me Stan) I followed that lever action all the way around the CUB. It goes from the steering post notched lever (correctly stated now that I know to be the THROTTLE) it was mis-marked as the HEADLIGHT switch in the quadrant...confused the living HELL out of every poor guy I talked to (whaddaya mean there is a rod going to the magneto for the headlights???) well all of you were right...it has a wrong factory type decal on it with bright-dim-etc. and I am yanking that off of there tomorrow! Anyway: the other cable with lever is choke, figured that one out. The throttle rod goes to the governor (wish we had one that good in California but that is another story) and from there a bellcrank to the left side of the engine where it changes direction to fore-and-aft to pull the carburetor throttle high-low; so that is indeed the throttle & governor controller all in one but my governor is LARGER than the image Don posted from TM Tractors above...so it may be a really early version (??) I will get some daylight tomorrow & take a photo for posting. May be interesting.

Ricky Racer says to prime the oil pump...good to know Ricky but how the heck do I do that? I have been cranking this thing to the point the battery needs charging (didn't start yet....just pops a little) but hasn't run on its own so how do you prime that pump? Oil is fresh & new (no filter....right?)
With no distributor to drive the mechanical oil pump I don't know what powers it (off the camshaft maybe?) so without a set of real manuals (yet) I don't quite know how to prime the pump without the motor spinning.

I think I would like a set of headlights & perhaps front fenders to make it "look nice" and graft in a light switch maybe as they have already drilled the switch holes in the dash anyway....so it isn't perfect any longer....someone bolted a modern receiver & 2" ball hitch to the draw bar; it came with an original plow but nothing else so implements will be fun to hunt for. Anyone got an extra set of headlights (complete...I do have empty threaded holes but nothing else there) if you have a set to spare. I will also want to buy decals for it & make it look cute & original. Suggestions are very much welcomed!

As soon as I drain out all the water in the gas I will work on that timing and with the help I got I know now about the timing pointer on the left front side of the crank pulley....will hunt for the mark in daylight; presumably TDC spark or close to it for timing on #1 piston. That's enough for now; wearing out my typing fingers and hopefully not my welcome.

Best regards to all!

Bob Burchett; call me at 310.686.9973 on my cell phone if you have nothing else to do & want to chat....I am having more fun than I know what to do with.

[Urbish]

Hi Bob. I think if you make just one more post, you'll unlock access to the full manuals stored on this site. Scroll to the top of the page, left side, click "Quick Links", scroll down to PDF Manuals. Going through the manuals will answer many of your questions.

[ricky racer]

If you do a search regarding priming the oil pump, there are many post about it.

[Mike in Louisiana]

Welcome to the forum.

[Gary Dotson]

Hi Bob and welcome to the forum. Yes, your Cub has an oil filter. It's located under the round cover, above the starter. Along with the manuals and such, you should spend time studying posts on this forum. Pretty much anything you can think of has been discussed at one time or another. Enjoy the trip ahead!

[Stanton]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your Cub.

Here's a thread about priming the oil pump: http://www.farmallcub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94417&p=744593&hilit=prime+pump#p744593