M. C. S. I.

That's what I call it. Mechanical Crime Scene Investigation. There are two distinct types of mechanical failures. The ones that occur naturally over time due to wear & tear and possibly questionable maintenance. Then there's the other kind. The failures that are caused by human intervention.

I just spent the last two hours tinkering around with a 1972 model 110 with a 10 horsepower engine. This tractor has not run in I don't know how many years. When I first got it I was told that the engine ran really well & the transaxle had no problems. But I really could not verify anything at all with the previous owner because he relocated to California after selling his farm back here in NY. But because most farmers I know are honest ones, I took the tractor off his hands. At the time I did notice strange attempts at repairs. Like it has four brand new tires on it, but the fender deck was removed. There may have been an electrical problem because I found three ignition switches in the battery box, none of which are for this tractor.

My first plan of attack is to always spend time, and no money to speak of until I determine how bad a machine is & what it will take to get it going. I decided on this unit, to pull the carb & clean it up & to inspect the breaker points & ignition system, & fix any other electrical problems just to the point where I can get a spark of life into her & hopefully get the engine up for a test run. Then I would know what I'm up against.

At this point let me say that this tractor was missing its gas tank. And the gentleman who was selling it to me on behalf of the farmer who was already out in California, did his best to find it, but it never turned up. So I put a gas tank on that I got from a junked 112 tractor. I pulled the carb & when I opened the fuel bowl the fumes were so overpowering I had to go out of the shed for some air. I never smelled such a concentration of fumes before coming out of a carb. On closer inspection the gunk laying in the fuel bowl was nothing like I ever seen before. It had the weight & viscosity of motor oil, but somewhat diluted. And it had this really strange green tint to it. The green tint was like the green you would find in Glycol anti freeze.

Good Grief! Is this the reason why the fuel tank was removed possibly. And the fuel lines from the tank to the carb are rock hard on the outside, but on the inside were starting to flake apart. Or maybe, it was a mix of Gas & oil that was put in the tank by accident. I think it could be either or... And who would make such a really bad mistake like this. And the other strange thing about the electrical system. Someone was looking for a problem in the electrical system. But their efforts to find a problem were helter skelter all over the wiring harness. But they obviously had not a single clue as to what they were doing.

The one area they did not disturb was the ignition system, thankfully. That appears not to have been touched in ten years. Fortunately, the breaker points on this machine are behind the muffler & you really need to tear down the exhaust to do any repairs to it. Looks like that about the time they would have attacked the ignition system, they got disgusted, angry, frustrated or whatever & abandoned this tractor to rust itself away in peace.

Now, I'm guessing that this tractor was one of several machines on this farm & was probably used to mow the lawn, & maybe bring in some produce from the family garden. But then it may have developed a mechanical or electrical problem that made it quit running. Time went by and it was never repaired because this tractor was one of several that could be used on this farm.

So perhaps, one day the farmers young son, or more likely his grandchild or grandchildren asked if they could work on it to get it going. And maybe that's how it was plunged into the abyss that so many of these wonderful machines fall into. The end result to all of this is that I must now hope that I can undo any of the human damage inflicted upon this machine. Then & only then do I stand a chance at figuring out what could be wrong with it.

The whole point here is, if you don't know what's wrong or how to fix it. Leave it to someone who does. And if your not going to repair it for whatever reason, either give it to someone who you know will repair & make use of it, or just sell it to whoever wants to buy it. While I don't mean to sound all emotional over a piece of iron, I'm sure that most collectors & restorers would feel the same way. For me, this is just a hobby but a gosh darn expensive hobby. An it also takes a lot of hard work & time as well as all your spare change (as if anyone has spare change these days) to preserve one of these machines. So when you see one of these machines that has gone down but can be saved, you Must always follow the first rule of the restorer which is
Do No Further Harm

Jerry