I recently bought my first "big" tractor. It's an 8N that someone started to restore and then let lay for 15 years. I was told it wouldn't run so I took a ramp truck to pick it up, winched it up on the deck and brought it home. I wondered quite a few times during that 4 hour ride just how tough it might be to breathe life into that 8N again. I rolled it into the a corner of the garage and gave it a good look over. The gas cap was missing and what fuel there was looked more like a glaze for the Xmas ham we'd be having. No battery, no ignition coil, points, rotor and condenser missing. Front tires flat. Starter solenoid missing. Good tin though and I could crank the engine by hand. I pumped up the front tires and went home.
No battery and coil made a 12v conversion an easier choice so I ordered the parts and then picked up the battery and ignition parts at the local NAPA store next morning. Got to the garage and saw the tires held air. Good news. Put on the starter solenoid and did what I could with the ignition parts I had. Freed up the distributor weights. Put a little Mystery oil in each cylinder. Came back a couple of days later with the conversion kit and my friend Ernie. Now I finally had an ignition coil. Put all that stuff on and added a fuse to the electrical circuit (you would have thought Henry would have taken care of that). I used an oiler full of gasoline to feed the carb. I double checked everything I'd done, pulled the choke, turned the key and hit the starter. It started on the second revolution with a cloud of smoke and a blast of crap coming out of the exhaust pipe. This not being the first old engine I'd started I had remembered to turn on an exhaust fan. The smoke cleared out and this thing sounded great. But absolutley no oil pressure. I was bumming out. Ernie is a guy who can fix your washing machine, lawnmower or VCR. He wasn't so discouraged. He explaind that the oil pump was a gear type and was probably dry and wouldn't prime. He thought for a minute and pulled the top of the oil filter canister off. He took an air hose and blew into the center tube. The oil in the bottom of the canister bubbled and he put the cap back on and had me try it again. Problem solved 35 psi. He's a regular McGyver.
I sent the fuel tank out to be boiled today but I've got to think everything is downhill from here on.
You've gotta love these old gals. Park your modern car for 15 months and you'd need a bolt of lightning to start it.
No battery and coil made a 12v conversion an easier choice so I ordered the parts and then picked up the battery and ignition parts at the local NAPA store next morning. Got to the garage and saw the tires held air. Good news. Put on the starter solenoid and did what I could with the ignition parts I had. Freed up the distributor weights. Put a little Mystery oil in each cylinder. Came back a couple of days later with the conversion kit and my friend Ernie. Now I finally had an ignition coil. Put all that stuff on and added a fuse to the electrical circuit (you would have thought Henry would have taken care of that). I used an oiler full of gasoline to feed the carb. I double checked everything I'd done, pulled the choke, turned the key and hit the starter. It started on the second revolution with a cloud of smoke and a blast of crap coming out of the exhaust pipe. This not being the first old engine I'd started I had remembered to turn on an exhaust fan. The smoke cleared out and this thing sounded great. But absolutley no oil pressure. I was bumming out. Ernie is a guy who can fix your washing machine, lawnmower or VCR. He wasn't so discouraged. He explaind that the oil pump was a gear type and was probably dry and wouldn't prime. He thought for a minute and pulled the top of the oil filter canister off. He took an air hose and blew into the center tube. The oil in the bottom of the canister bubbled and he put the cap back on and had me try it again. Problem solved 35 psi. He's a regular McGyver.
I sent the fuel tank out to be boiled today but I've got to think everything is downhill from here on.
You've gotta love these old gals. Park your modern car for 15 months and you'd need a bolt of lightning to start it.
