Yesterday I was contacted by ANOTHER older lady who has a '51 Super A. My local NAPA guy, one of the few who knows what he is doing, had asked if she could call me. I went over and she said she was unable to get it to start. First I checked the fuel tank, and it was bone dry, so figured that MIGHT be one problem! But as I was assessing the tractor, and walked around to the left side, I told her I had probably found the REAL problem...there was NO carb!!
She had no idea where it was, but today called and said she THINKS she removed it to take it to NAPA for parts or evaluation...not sure...and will look around for it. So since I couldn't do much else for her, I installed the new 12v (Internal Resistor) coil that she had been told by someone she needed (12v conversion). I also cleaned the sediment bowl and screen (still had old gunky gas in it), then reinstalled it with a new gasket I had.
It does have a good battery, and the starter turns, so I think it will run and am hoping she will find her carb. HOWEVER, from the looks of her place, I believe she is a bit of a hoarder...she has at least 3 vehicles on her farm property, and they are filled with "stuff"! I told her it would be rather expensive to replace, and encouraged her to look hard for it.
Well, she called the other day, and said she found it stuffed in her parked truck (aka storage locker!). I went down yesterday, and saw the carb had been stored in a plastic bag & allowed to get wet, so had some rust, and the choke was frozen. Since I was there, I decided to install the carb I had rebuilt for my OTHER volunteered-for SA job. I hooked up my pony bottle and was totally surprised when I pulled the starter rod, and it started right up and sounded great!! (Also, good oil pressure)
It was a good thing, though, that I had NOT connected the carb to the air cleaner! After I shut it down, I was showing her how to clean out the air cleaner cup and refill with clean oil. When I removed the CAP, it was filled with mud dauber nest! I cleaned that out, then saw the inlet tube was also packed! I broke that loose, so now needed to clean the CUP, since it now had a bunch of mud dauber crud in it.
On to telling her to clean the vented plug in the top of the steering gear housing...tons of dried/baked on gunk all around steering shaft. It turned out to be easier just to do it myself.
I ended up leaving with a long to-do list, that I will work on when I return after rebuilding her carb. At least I know the tractor runs, including the hydraulics, that I operated. All in all, a very rewarding day!
